More Of The Same

It is the Middle East, after all. And this is what opposing political, tribal, religious groups do to one another. 'Human rights' appears not to have established itself very deeply in the consciousness of those who live in that geography. These are concepts and catch-words, like the famous 'democracy' of which everyone in the Middle East claims to have become so fond of, that are unfamiliar and foreign.

In Libya, when opposition groups began torturing and executing regime military members and regime sympathizers the West was horrified. After all, NATO had made a deep investment in Libya, aiding and abetting the disorganized, disparate militias under a purported political/social umbrella authority, to take advantage of the opportunities opened for them by NATO over-flight power and bombing.

And although NATO has resisted all pleas by the Syrian opposition to become involved in their struggle to unseat their own tyrant, benevolent though he claims to be, in reflection of what Moammar Gadhafi always claimed, a mirror reflection of Libya has appeared in Syria. And it should be to no one's great surprise.

There has been much hand-wringing over the Free Syrian Army being in possession of small arms in contrast to the military might of the regime's military, well supplied with defences over the past five years by Russia and Iran; a veritable stockpile of munitions and artillery with which to keep the militias at bay and overcome their resistance by might and by steel.

The U.S. hugely deplores the actions of the Syrian regime, finally declaring President Bashar al-Assad unfit to continue leading his country. But, like the condemnations emanating from Britain and France, there is heat without fire. President Obama has no wish to imperil his chances for re-election by embarking upon yet another Middle East military adventure.

And why should he? Turkey is a powerful neighbour with a huge military capable of intervening, but though Turkey deplores al-Assad and his regime, they have made no effort to intervene militarily, singly or in concert with the Arab League. And why is the Arab League itself not taking concrete steps to end the slaughter of Sunni Syrian civilians at the hands of an avenging regime's military?

As vicious as is the response of the regime's military to the protests in Homs, Idlib, Deir al-Zour and elsewhere, the United Nations' and Arab League-dispatched Kofi Annan held out hope for reconciliation until it became clear there was no hope. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has an agreement with the Syrian Alawites to investigate the effect of the violence.

As they do so they will, without doubt, make note that viciousness and brutality is being executed not only on the part of the regime on those who challenge its longevity, but by the opposition as well. An opposition that appears to have been infiltrated by al-Qaeda, for added effect, and giving credence to Bashar al-Assad's frequent statements of his regime being challenged by foreign elements, terrorists, al-Qaeda.

"Syria is a strategic centerpiece of al-Qaeda in many ways. This is an opportunity, I think, for al-Qaeda, in its own mind at least, to re-assert itself in a way that puts it at the centre of chaos and civil war, and begins to shape a future of al-Qaeda that looks perhaps different from the past, but one that has Syria at its core,", according to Juan Zarate, of the center for Strategic and International Studies.

And then there is the charge by Human Rights Watch which has sent an open letter to the Syrian National Council, calling on it to speak out and condemn the abuses being carried out by its own forces. The abuses that Human Rights Watch refer to include kidnapping for ransom, detention and torture of security force members, government supporters, and pro-government militia members, Shabiha.

Human Rights Watch also speaks of credible reports of summary executions conducted by armed opposition groups, dispatching to martyrdom, security force members and civilians who support the Alawite regime.

How can one distinguish the good guys from the bad guys?

Fact is, it is all perspective, a similar agenda exercised by both sides, where sectarian divides, tribal hatreds and ethnic challenges all play a role in exacerbating already existing conflicts kept under wraps through the firm control of tyrants and dictators in the Middle East.

Clear And Present Danger

"I saw two people dead in front of the school, an adult and a child. Inside, it was a vision of horror - the bodies of two small children." French Jew whose child attends the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school.

"We know that it is the same person and the same weapon that killed the soldiers, the children and the teacher. This act is odious and cannot remain unpunished." French President Nicolas Sarkozi

An act of hatred-deranged brutality beyond the imagination of most people. Psychotic derangement, what else might explain the willingness of a man to grasp an eight-year-old little girl's hair as she desperately attempted to escape the scene of a bloody atrocity to find shelter in the confines of her school, so he could retain her, and shoot her at point-blank range?

How could any human being find satisfaction in this kind of unspeakable depravity? Yet, if reports are correct in their interpretation, this sadistic monster wore around his neck a video camera to enable him to film the carnage that his psychotic rampage in a schoolyard resulted in. In cold blood and with cold intent he murdered a man, his two young boys and a young girl.

He used a 9-mm weapon until it jammed, then switched to a .45-calibre gun, entering the school gates and running after the children as they desperately attempted to evade him. One 17-year-old is battling for his life in hospital. The murderer fled the scene on the same motorized scooter on which he had arrived to commit his barbaric atrocity on innocent young people.

Whoever he is, dismissed former military man whom the army rejected when it discovered him to be a neo-Nazi infused with hatred for minorities and immigrants, or just another of the world's many vicious psychopaths, he has alerted a nation to the vulnerability of their minorities. Racial bigotry is nothing new in France, and anti-Semitism has a long inglorious history there.

The nation is not inordinately fond of immigrants and visible minorities, those who come to France and inexorably, by the weight of their presence and their singular customs and heritage values begin to add their traditions to those of nativist France. The current electioneering is addressing the issues of French dissatisfaction with immigration.

All the pieces of the puzzle come together to complete a puzzling conundrum: does the ultimate rejection of 'others', satisfactorily conclude that their very otherness condemns them in France to vulnerability and clear and present danger?

Asleep At The Switch

"Maybe as a good corporate citizen, Sandoz might actually take a loss, or sell the product at its original price to win back the good will of the purchasers in Canada", opined Steve Morgan, associate director of the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research at the University of British Columbia.

Maybe? Don't they have a moral obligation in there somewhere? After all, they as good as had/have the inside track on supplying the lion's share of critical drugs for most hospitals in Canada. That's a privileged position, is it not? Yet despite that privilege and the responsibility that partners it, the company's Canadian division was lax in its quality control.

And because of that lack of critical diligence, the U.S. monitoring authorities have demanded it bring its operations up to standards before it will be permitted to export its product into the United States, a huge market. Which need to upgrade facilities to reach that target, along with an unfortunate fire inside its production premises, caused a shortfall in production.

The result of which has caused Canadian hospitals to frantically scramble to ensure they have sufficient critical drugs so that surgeries can proceed, and people who require drugs for serious health issues aren't left high and dry. Health Canada and its provincial counterparts have certainly been asleep at the switch in not ensuring that they had agreements in place with alternate suppliers.

"We got into this situation because Health Canada did not plan in advance, and now we're being held hostage", according to Dr. Joel Lexchin, a drug-policy expert whose advice has been followed by governments around the world. "We're now in a position where we have very few options. "Approving drugs and making sure that they're available in the country is the responsibility of the federal government."

Fact is, negotiations are underway with alternate potential suppliers, foreign pharmaceutical manufacturers; mostly, though, Novartis for whom Sandoz is the generic-drug subsidiary. And guess what? because Health Canada is not negotiating from strength but rather through a fog of desperation to plug the gap of supply, the upper hand is held by Sandoz.

Fifteen of the 23 applications from drug manufacturers that could provide Canadian hospitals with their needed 100 types of painkillers, sedatives and cardiac drugs in use daily, are from Sandoz. They won't be giving any of it away. They will be charging top dollar. Because of the current conditions of shortage, the advantage is with the supplier, not the purchaser.

Preferred vendor status should be yanked out from under Sandoz Canada. It has amply demonstrated it is not serious enough about retaining that status, through a continued and reliable flow of product assured to Canadian hospitals.

And Health Canada should be taking a lesson from all of this; they have failed the most basic test of their own responsibility to Canadians.

Choices, Choices

There go the Conservatives, at it again, roughing up the reputation of their political rivals. For heaven's sake, the Liberals have not yet crowned Bob Rae; he remains interim leader, despite that he obviously considers himself to have inherited the throne, and his demeanor and comfort with the leadership appears to have convinced most other Liberals that this is his birthright.

But the Liberal Party of Canada is languishing in the House with the fewest seats they have ever had, in a repudiation by the electorate of their past performance. Jean Chretien left the party in disarray and disgrace; both for himself and the party. Neither Stephane Dion nor the great academic hope of the party, Michael Ignatieff, ignited interest from the electorate. So it's up to Bob Rae to make his mark.

Except, the Liberals aren't even the Official Opposition, are they? They're opposing the government at every turn, but it is the New Democratic Party that miraculously managed to garner sufficient seats to knock the Liberals onto a scant few back seats, finally positioning themselves as a second-place party, striving for first-place.

And what a motley crew it is that is positioning themselves for the NDP leadership. As the old mariners would have it, a "scurvy lot". Left-wing politics, once fairly respectable, has become fairly lunatic in their fantasies of a world that reflects their judgement of what constitutes fairness and justice. The best of a scurvy lot seems to be Thomas Mulcair.

And can one see this short-fused autocrat with some sensible ideas and sound reasoning in some areas being addressed as Prime Minister Mulcair? As prime minister he would, though reputed to be a stout federalist, authorize an amicable semi-parting of the ways with Quebec from the rest of Canada. And where would this Quebecer stand as PM?

The prime minister of Canada, or the prime mover for Quebec?

But, back to Bob Rae. He's the challenger-to-the-throne that the Conservatives are aiming their propaganda guns at. For the time being, in any event. Calling into question Mr. Rae's bona fides. For before he was a Liberal he was a NDPer. And as leader of the provincial New Democratic Party he found himself amazed by being elected Premier of Ontario.

In which position he earned the wrath of public service unions, and condemnation from all Ontarians. Who just chafed at the bit until they had the opportunity to toss him out as an utter failure. Ushering in a prolonged period of misery under the provincial Conservatives. Who managed through cut-backs to rescue the province from a nasty deficit left them by the NDP.

So, out come those attack ads. Attack ads? They are geared to recall to Ontario voters' memories the umbrage they felt when this man who would be Liberal leader was NDP leader/Ontario premier and they didn't much like him in that role.

Choices, choices.

Death: A Final Solution

As symbolism goes, the death of a 91 year old man accused and found guilty of aiding in genocide-by-excruciating-design as a Nazi-era death camp guard, puts a weary stamp on the world's indifference to the appeal of world Jewry to hunt down and make accountable those who aided and abetted the conspiracy to finally rid the world of Jews.

The Holocaust, that hideously horrendous event of world history quite like none other cannot be reversed through the expedient of insisting on 'justice', bringing ancient decrepit bodies to account for what their robust young bodies and minds were complicit with. Of course the real purpose in the hunting down of those involved, was and remains to ensure that the horrors did not slip into the distant past, beyond memory.

The world has grown weary of the Holocaust, however. The word itself, comparable to none other in its scope and horror, its infinitesimal planning and superb execution, has been appropriated and altered sufficiently to enable it to be bandied about to express condemnation of other, lesser though surely horrible acts of execrable atrocity against human beings.

The perpetrators are feeble and white-haired ghosts of what they were. Of those that are left, few are well known. At a time when action might have been taken and could have been successfully enabled, there were too many other concerns to take the attention of those who could have moved themselves to that purpose, but did not. Accommodations were made, and sometimes criminals in one regard can be useful in another.

John Demjanjuk is dead, of disease and old age, permitted to die in the dignity of being cared for by a state apparatus that took pity on him to release him from incarceration to the comfort of a hospital setting. Those who believe he might be in the agony of death's door, hugely troubled by his past, need not bother themselves by those thoughts of compassion, for he likely felt no personal scruples about any part he may have played in countless deaths.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center will continue pursuing its reason for existence. It is unlikely they will uncover the existence of many other former guards at the Sobibor concentration camp, or elsewhere, for they are long gone. Long gone soon enough will be the memory of those who perished in their helpless millions, victims of a precisely mechanistic state machine that consigned them to death.

Canada's role in bringing justice to the prosecution of those representing fascist Germany's Nazi era of cleansing the world of Jews, has not been a felicitous one. Much was made of establishing a special investigative tribunal, but not much was born of it, though Canada became a haven to quite a number of former death camp guards.

Israel, when it had the opportunity to dispatch Demjanjuk after his 1988 conviction and sentencing there did not, because the Israeli Supreme Court overturned that conviction. There were lingering doubts related to his identity. A testament to the seriousness with which Israeli justice takes its mandate; truth and justice without peer.

A German court had no doubts. But punishment is difficult to mete out to the frail, the sick and the elderly, even if they represent the most vile, despicable and monstrous regime whose pact with death served to distinguish it as one of the world's most disgusting moments with history.

"Those Days Are Over"

St. Patrick's Day celebrations turned into a riot in London, Ont., March 17, 2012. At least 11 people have been arrested, and police are urging others involved in the violence to step forward. (Karlie Rogerson Photography/Facebook.com)

Five hours of explosive excitement. What more could college students ask for than a drunken bash of that calibre? Young 'adults' from privileged backgrounds, away from home, living on their own in rented quarters close by the venue where they are receiving their academic credentials as educated elite in a free country. Even free countries don't appreciate raging mob action.

Students carousing is one thing, regrettable though it may be; a kind of rite of passage from living obediently and placidly at home with parents, to suddenly finding themselves free, free at last, good grief, free at last! To study the subjects of their choice with a view to finding their future through steady and well-remunerated employment so they too may eventually marry, buy a home, have offspring.

The endless cycle. So predictable. So boring, utterly without promise for those brimming with enthusiasm for real life. So then, real life was what Fanshawe College students demonstrated in their St. Patrick's Day green revelry. "Last night, London experienced the worst case of civil disobedience that our community has ever been subjected to", according to London Police chief Brad Duncan.

There, then, Fanshawe students have distinguished themselves. "Never, in my 32 years as a police officer, have I observed behaviours that escalated to the point that there was risk that individuals could seriously be hurt, or quite frankly killed", elaborated Chief Duncan. Well, if Queens University, that bastion of conservative academic prowess can host civility-bashing events, why not Fanshawe College?

There's just something about those ingredients: youth, alcohol, hedonistic freedom, that calls out for celebration and excess. Five hours where violence spewed its heady intoxication around Fleming Drive where students tend to house themselves adjacent the community college. Beer bottles, bricks and wood fencing and car tire rims, all useful objects to pelt police and fire fighters with.

Certainly geared to make the news; television coverage and front-page newsprint, though below the fold. The police felt it wise when they could make no progress in persuading the thousand or so rioters to cease and desist, to withdraw their presence. Those police vehicles not too damaged by rioters to move were sped away to the cheers of the crowd.

A CTV cameraman was busy filming the excitement, and then the ravening crowed turned attention to his vehicle, tipping it over, torching it, feeding tree branches, wood fencing and mattresses on the fire to create a satisfying blaze, until the vehicle's fuel tank exploded resulting in a wonderfully festive fireball.

Mayor Joe Fontana had something to say about the exciting presentation his city witnessed. "The day of thinking that Fleming Drive is a place where you can come to cause damage - those days are over. We will make sure this never happens again." Adults are like that, always prepared to spoil young peoples' fun.

Seems the administration of Fanshawe College is also prepared to behave abominably about this, over-reacting as adults are so wont to do, dammit. College president Howard Rundle has announced at a press conference that this kind of stupidity will not be tolerated. Eight students have been suspended.

More to come?

Justice, Human Relations and Human Rights at the UNHRC

Hamas Terrorist to Address UN Human Rights Council
by Gil Ronen



Senior Hamas official Ismail al-Ashqar will address the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday, an official statement said.

Al-Ashqar arrived in Switzerland on Sunday ahead of the appearance, which will focus on the issue of Hamas members being held in Israeli jails, the statement added.

Blogger Elder of Zion noted that al-Ashqar has publicly called for Hamas to kidnap Israeli soldiers – an act that constitutes a war crime.

In another statement, al-Ashqar said that "Jerusalem cannot be liberated through negotiations or dialogue ... resistance and Jihad is the only way to liberate Jerusalem from the dirt of the Zionist occupation."

MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) said Sunday that al-Ashkar's invitation is "a mark of shame to an organization that attempts to create an image of caring for human rights."

"This is a new record for the global anti-Semitic lie industry," she added. "Hamas, who fire rockets at the homes of innocent civilians, are received with open arms by the same organization that always denounces Israel's actions."

Tags: Hamas ,UNHRC

More on this topic

• Israel Calls for Immediate Dismissal of U.N. Tweeter
• Hamas Calls to Boycott Adidas For Sponsoring Jerusalem Marathon
• Hamas Angry at Adidas Over Jerusalem Marathon
• Hamas Leader in Iran: Our Resistance Won't Change
• Cafe Hillel Bomber Returns from 'Apartheid Week' Tour
• Fatah-Hamas Unity? Not This Year

As published online at ArutzSheva, 19 March 2012

War Exposure, Mind Upheaval

"We discriminated between the bad guys and the noncombatants and then afterward we ended up helping the people that three or four hours before were trying to kill us. I think that's the real difference between being an American as opposed to being a bad guy, someone who puts his family in harm's way like that."

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales suffered a minor traumatic brain injury in 2010, toward the end of his third deployment in Iraq. Photograph by: Spc. Ryan Hallock, AFP, Getty Images , The Sunday Telegraph

That's the quintessential American talking. Proud of his country, proud of his military affiliation, and the work that's done in foreign countries to maintain peace and stability and security. Knowing the limits, recognizing the humanity in us all, striving to comport himself with the dignity of one who knows better, who wishes for justice to take place.

He was a good soldier, was Staff Sgt. Robert Bales. He had a lot of combat experience, no fewer than three deployments in Iraq, not exactly the bastion of good fellowship, Iraqi to Iraqi; the tribal and sectarian conflicts were hideous and continual bloodletting on a scale certain to drive anyone crazy. Perhaps it wasn't that, perhaps it was the 'minor traumatic brain injury' he suffered in a vehicle rollover.

He was cited time and again for bravery and outstanding conduct under pressure. He was decorated no fewer than a dozen times during three tours of duty in Iraq. And although yet young he felt his experience and those commendations would certainly hold great promotions in store for him. But he was bypassed. And he had money problems at home. And he began drinking.

And then he was deployed again, had to leave his two young children and his wife to go back out again, this time to Afghanistan. This loving father and husband, this "life of the party" who'd undergone an anger management assessment after an assault charge.

"Bales is still, hands down, one of the best soldiers I ever worked with. There has to be very severe post-traumatic stress disorder involved in this. I just don't want him seen as some psychopath, because he is not", stressed Capt. Chris Alexander, his platoon leader in Iraq.

What, then, is this man? He loves his four- and three-year-old sons. And, of course, his wife. He has a genial personality, and a sense of personal responsibility to behave in the best of all possible ways as an American soldier tasked with protecting the lives of others. His lawyer claims Bales had witnessed one of his fellow soldiers lose a leg in an explosion. That occurred just hours before Bales set off on a night-time mission of his own.

In Panjwai District, Kandahar, he went hunting in a small rural village, where he entered homes in the wee hours of the dark morning and committed his own little atrocity, killing 16 Afghan villagers, nine of whom were children. So, what is it that creates a monster out of a normal, intelligent and caring person?

Serenely Delusional

"The power of the state is derived from the power of the people, whose power is derived from their dignity, which in turn is derived from the freedom, which is again derived from the power of their state. So, let the people embrace the state and let the army, the security personnel, the police and the people work hand in hand to prevent sedition, protect the homeland and ensure its supremacy." Syrian President Bashar al-Assad

The seditionists, the foreign enemies, the terrorists, are working hand in glove, unfortunately, against the state. And its supremacy is no longer quite so assured. Despite the efforts of the security personnel, the police and the people working hand in hand. And isn't this so typical of the Middle East? With its perversions and contortions of tribalism and sectarian hatreds?

Although no entities have yet claimed triumph/responsibility for the suicide bombings that have targeted government security buildings in Damascus the crisis that Syria has become is most certainly escalating. Sympathetic with the Alawite regime are those, such as Syrian Christians, who have good reason to fear the Sunni revolt and the Muslim Brotherhood that supports it.

They far prefer to remain under the oppressive thumb of the devil they know. Whose reign has not been completely harmful to their continued longevity. Those threatening to replace that reign have amply demonstrated otherwise. But the regime of Bashar al-Assad is resolute, well-armed and -trained, and has no intention of surrendering their primacy to military deserters and those claiming to represent the best interests of an alternate vision of Syria.

"Syria is used to creating victories and defeating the enemies of the nation. It knows how to do it, to add new victories and leave warmongers and blood merchants to taste the bitterness of defeat and disappointment"; the claim of a purposefully infallible Bashar al-Assad, born to lead, the inheritor of a legend and prepared to repeat his father's success against the Muslim Brotherhood.

Well over 8,000 Syrians have died in the past year of protests and militant strikes against the regime. Although President al-Bashar has his own take on those deaths, most of which have been committed by terrorists and other vicious scum against innocents who support his regime. The torture, rape and assorted atrocities committed by the regime against civilians were also the work of foreign invaders.

Turkey has received some 14,000 refugees from Syria, crossing the border near Idlib, and may provide a safety corridor within Syrian territory to protect those who continue to flood into Turkey for safe haven. The United Nations has put forward an estimate of 200,000 people left homeless refugees by the civil war, a result of Bashar al Assad's troops firing heavy artillery at city neighbourhoods, to suppress the uprising.

"Not everybody in the street was frighting for freedom. You have different components - you have extremists, religious extremists, you have outlaws, people who have been convicted in the courts. We don't kill our people... No government in the world kills its people, unless it's led by a crazy person. For me, as President, I became President because of the public support. It's impossible for anyone, in this state, to give order[s] to kill people."

A crazy person? Does being serenely delusional qualify?

We Urge North Korea

There truly is method to their madness. Lunatic and delusional they may be, leading the sane and the practical to plead with them to restore a level of sanity to their governance, to relieve the threat they represent to the world community, let alone their geographical neighbours, yet their delusions lead them to places where even while assuring they are to be trusted, promises huge upheaval.

The world's sole superpower because of its status as a Western democratic diplomatic stick-handler of peaceful relations between political ideologies has been brought time and again to the brink of compromise with North Korea and with Iran. Compromise, granted, is always preferable to the breaking off of relations and sounding the drumbeat of aggression.

Yet both compromise and war fall into the traps laid by the provocateur states that wield threats against peace and security. States like Iran and North Korea are themselves uncompromising, yet their bellicose demands insist on compromise from others. Where others attempt enticements and promise aid to balance off the surrender of potential weapons of mass destruction, North Korea and Iran flaunt their potential to upset the peace of the world.

They revel in the attention given them, even while they claim to be victims. Their complicity with one another in mutual encouragement of nuclear weaponry production and sharing nuclear tests to avert detection by monitoring agencies gives them a sense of power over the nations that shudder at their unrestrained and dedicated agenda at destabilization.

Knowing that fear gives them power and power lends them protection.

Yet another agreement with the United States and North Korea has gone into the full and rusty bucket of failure. Failure for the world community to bring a halt to North Korea's continual bellicose stance against its neighbours. Famine may be a fact of life for North Koreans, but groomed since childhood to view the successive Kims as semi-gods, they endure and they die.

The exchange agreement to provide food aid to North Korea for their agreement to halt nuclear tests, uranium enrichment and long-range missile launches, and to permit nuclear inspectors entry to their facilities was bruited about as holding great potential. Hope does spring eternal. It took less than two weeks for North Korea to announce its plans to launch a long-range rocket with a "working" satellite.

Provoking the United States to warn that such a launch would be in stark violation of Pyongyang's agreement to agree to a halt in such missile launching. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a former South Korean foreign minister, urged compliance with UN Security Council resolutions banning launches using ballistic missile technology. Since North Korea has contempt for South Korea to begin with, that appeal certainly fell flat.

South Korea, Japan, Britain, France, China and Russia along with other nations have expressed their concern. Which is entirely satisfactory for North Korean, accustomed to having concern expressed and lavishly so, as a result of its many unexpected and startling announcements. Kim Jong-il placed his trust in his son, Kim Jong-un, and under the tutelage of the North Korean generals he has been a fast learner.

Just as South Korea plans to hold their parliamentary election, and after a global nuclear security summit to take place in Seoul, the North Korean launch is scheduled to take place. The government of Japan is singularly disconcerted, pointing out that ballistic missile technology violates Security Council resolutions.

"We urge North Korea to exercise restraint and refrain from the launch", was the advice proffered by Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura, in remembrance of fairly recent missile launches that crashed down into the Sea of Japan.

"Just Putting Up Warning Signals"

There's that old pugnacious battle-scarred warrior Ed Broadbent leaping into the fray, doing what he must, and warning the faithful not to be led astray into voting for the one individual who may bring the New Democratic Party into a reformed place in Canadian politics which might just cause a whole lot of people to view it rather more positively than they do right now, as a party mired in its tradition of social justice with a tired socialist veneer.

The simple fact is every political party in Canada is interested in furthering social justice. The difference is the manner in which each of the parties further their ambitions to make the country more equitable while at the same time increasing its overall prosperity. Smiling Jack Layton had his own ideas of making changes in the party he inherited. He began to draw the NDP away from its stagnating inheritance of conflict with business and deep embrace of unions.

The language itself of the NDP harked back to a far earlier era reflective of sympathy with the USSR and its politics of inclusion-absorption and communal socialism. In the end that turned out to be inimical to their own cause because human beings need to be challenged to meet their capabilities, they do not take well to surrendering their individuality nor their interests in life in favour of a collective.

The NDP that Ed Broadbent left behind him was weakened by its absorption of personalities that celebrated equality for some, yet scorned those whom it believed did not share its vision. Political parties should have a broad enough agenda to attract a majority of voters, theirs was too narrowly defined and in the end it became a party that embraced dictatorial leftists while shunning and defaming liberal conservatives.

Thomas Mulcair is inspired through his experience as a Liberal politician in Quebec who served in government, and who later drifted to the NDP, to bring the party to a more centrist position. He expressed sympathies more in keeping with a well-rounded political mind than the narrow perspective of the traditional NDP party member. He may not be described as a consensus-builder, and team player, but he seems to represent the potential for becoming a strong leader.

Under Jack Layton the party did change direction, expanded its horizons, sought new and more inclusive priorities. Astonishingly, helping veterans, agreeing to an increase in military spending, and the hiring of more police, tougher sentences on home invasions and carjacking. On the other hand, in wooing Quebec, the party accepted Quebec-centric policies that were offensive to the rest of Canada.

All of the above will be incrementally refurbished by Thomas Mulcair who, for good or for ill, agrees with that initial direction. But he is a staunch federalist, and he does support minority rights, even while supporting Quebec's right to secede on a one-vote majority, and extending Bill 101-oriented restrictions into federal-optioned industry, to completely confound the picture.

For native wit and intelligence, Thomas Mulcair, like Bob Rae, has also a fair share of presence and confidence, all required personality traits to enable them each to square off civilly against the current prime minister for the purpose, dare we hope, of bringing greater accountability and the end product of prosperity and justice to the Canadian way of life.

Arab Support for Palestinians

Israel Helps PA while Arab Nations Drop Support
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

Israel is helping the slowing Palestinian Authority economy even as Arab nations ignore pledges, and the PA’s financial stability is questionable, according to an Israeli government report to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) in Brussels.

The summary comes at the same time that the International Monetary Fund reported that the PA economy is in a “difficult phase” due to a drop in aid. Arab nations have failed to meet pledges of billions of dollars in assistance.

It also blamed Israeli restrictions on trade as a factor that harms the economy, but the Israeli government report noted, “In 2011, Israel continued to implement its policy of support for economic…by removing additional check points [and] upgrading commercial crossings."

Israel also increased the number of permits for Arab employment in Israel and pushed forward an agreement to build four electricity substations in Judea and Samaria to increase the amount of electricity available for further economic development

Economic growth in the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria slowed to a 5.8 percent growth rate during the first nine months of 2011 while growth in Hamas-controlled Gaza soared by 25.8 percent.

Israeli purchases from the Palestinian Authority increased by 2.1 percent compared with 2010 while Israeli sales dropped by 1.1 percent.

In addition, there was a 33 percent increase last year in commercial goods shipped via the Allenby Bridge to and from Jordan.

Tags: Palestinian Authority ,Israel ,Gaza

As published online at ArutzSheva, 18 March 2012

Welcome To Quebec

Welcome to Quebec, if you plan to speak French exclusively and vow to relinquish all vital aspects of your religious beliefs to the practicality of living a life honouring only those Quebec 'values' that will be certain not to give offence to the famously prickly feelings of francophones. For, as an immigrant coming to Canada to share the opportunities in this country to advance personal ambitions, it should be understood that French sensibilities are extremely tender.

They will not, under any circumstances, accept that newcomers to the province - those from other cultures and certainly those who practise religions other than that most familiar to francophones and which they have themselves mostly shrugged off - will interfere in any measure with what Quebec considers to be 'normal'. To tweak things so that religious dietary laws continue to be carefully observed by immigrants is to risk arousing great passions and shocked objections.

The premier himself echoed bleats of disgust and outrage on the part of the Parti Quebecois, insisting that stricter labelling be imposed to make certain that poor unsuspecting Quebecers are not unbeknownst to themselves, forced to consume meat slaughtered according to Islamic dietary rules. Meat labelled 'halal' conforms to the Islamic code, and a local Quebec-based processing plant has been certified to produce 'halal' poultry.

For their Islamic clients a label is slapped on the poultry certifying that it qualifies as halal. That same packaged poultry is sold sans the label on supermarket shelves for all other consumers of the Olymel processing products, produced at Saint-Damase in Quebec. To qualify for halal the killing methods, humane and approved by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, are overseen by an imam.

But horrors! Quebecers take grave exception to this deception. They will not have it! They refuse to eat poultry that is certified halal, why should they accept it, after all, it is so obviously un-French!

"I say to those who process [meat] today, if they are halal animals, do yourself a favour as a producer and at the same time for the consumers, and say so on your products' labelling. That way consumers will know exactly what they are buying." Liberal Premier Jean Charest

"We're in Quebec and [halal slaughter] must be an exception. It must not be the rule in Quebec. the consumer must be informed when there is halal meat", according to the leader of the Coalition Avenir Quebec, also utterly outraged on behalf of the plight of the poor non-suspecting Quebecois.

Insufferable, those Muslims and their feelings of entitlement to alter things to suit themselves!

Olymel spokesman Richard Vigneault explained: "In no way has this certification changed anything in our method of slaughtering"; to no avail. No upstart businessman, in serving a minor market accommodatingly as a good business would seek to do, will tell the French that they have no reason to be upset.

Particularly when to do so is harmful to the animals, they claim. That line works up to an indignant head of steam among the righteous and the sanctimonious meat-eaters who never give a second thought to the comfort or discomfort of animals sent to the slaughterhouse.

And just to make sure that the French know they're not the only ones feeling indignant about the absurdity over the entire episode, Salam Elmenyawi, president of the Muslim Council of Montreal let it be known that he believes the PQ is "fanning the flames of intolerance, ignorance and division", when everyone knows this is what they are famed most for doing to the best of their ability.

French-Quebec intolerance for those of other origins, other faiths, other cultures and heritage is alive and well. Welcome to Quebec, where manufactured mass hysteria over the bloody nerve of outsiders to tamper with the French way will simply not be tolerated. So there.

A Failed World Community

The International Criminal Court, after ten years of existence as a handmaid of the United Nations and thus representing a judicial court of review capable of mounting a full and legal court case against what it deems to be war criminals on a grand scale inclusive of genocide, has brought news of yet another verdict. This one holding responsible and convicting on the evidence Thomas Lubanga Dyilo of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The International Criminal Court has a list of those whom it wishes to prosecute in the name of universal human rights. The president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir was tried and convicted on ten counts of human rights abuses, including genocide. His conviction was one reached at a remove, in absentia. Although there is a warrant out globally for his arrest, he laughs at the very notion of his being taken into custody.

Laughing alongside him is the Arab League and all their members, along with other leaders of Muslim countries who will have no truck with the International Criminal Court. Unless, of course, or until it suits their purpose to do so. Moammar Gadhafi, once the Arab League reached the conclusion he was of no further use and sick of his gadfly antics, abandoned him. Bashar al-Assad is next in line.

Another member-creature of the United Nations, a close sister in fact to the International Criminal Court is the UN's Human Rights Commission, and it too is a busy place, for it has been tasked with a grave and extremely important effort; to identify and to document and to condemn human-rights-abusing nations, to shame them, name them and hasten their shame-faced turnabout to respectable, human-rights-abiding places.

This year's UNHRC debate heard from the Syrian ambassador who informed the chamber that behind the unabated violence in his country was none other than Israel. And that, of course, figures since Israel remains the sole state continually roundly condemned by members of the UNHRC committee for its flagrant human rights abuses even as it represents a standard of respect for human rights that most members of the committee could never match.

Delegates at the UNHRC debate from Cuba, Syria, Belarus, Zimbabwe, Venezuela and a few other sterling examples of rights-respecting states praised the exemplary human rights record of the Islamic Republic of Iran, where the greatest number of executions in the world were carried out in the last year. Bringing to justice in Iran criminals such as homosexuals, regime dissenters and Baha'i.

There was an alternate, matching summit focusing on human rights that took place in Geneva as well, organized by the independent UN Watch, along with a group of 20 other human-rights groups. Speakers were Chinese dissidents, state prisoners from North Korea, Cuba, Zimbabwe and Burma. Along with democracy campaigners from Vietnam, Tibet, Pakistan and elsewhere in this troubled world.

The final session heard a speech by Maikel Nabil, an Egyptian veterinary student held for 301 days in a Cairo prison for the crime of recommending the Egyptian military cede power to a civil, elected body. He posted on his blog further recommendations; that Egyptian society treat women, gays and Jews with respect.

Another speech by Ebrahim Mehtari who was imprisoned, raped tortured and left for dead for opposing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 2009 presidential victory.

And then there was also Hadeel Kouki, a university student in Aleppo, Syria. Her unforgivably shocking crime meriting imprisonment, electric shocks and repeat rapes was to have attempted to smuggle medical supplies to children injured by the regime's bombardments against its detractors.

At that UN Watch summit, Hadeel Kouki was anxious that all the delegates know the name of the guard who had chiefly raped her: Abdul Hakeem Abdullatif. He will, without doubt, become at some future date, a proud representative of Syria to the UN's Human Rights Council.

Surrendering Baby

You cannot turn back that which has occurred, revisit your life to alter events to represent a scenario that you would prefer to one that expressed reality. We have one opportunity to live out our years and events are not always optimal. We stand in the present to look at the past and express deep and abiding regret for what we cannot change.

Reality is that people cannot judge in retrospect the events they were caught up in due to societal values and conventions that may have been unjust to effect some ameliorative curative for the present.

On the other hand, if harshly condemning social and cultural practises of the time with the claim that they ruined personal lives, demanding apologies and graciously accepting monetary compensation for the purpose of righting a historical wrong because apologies will never compensate and bring release, but money gained through a lawsuit will be accepted as a validation of pain and suffering, the way is set for a series of belated and nonsensical events.

Women, and now men as well, who in their early years suffered the pain of societal condemnation over youthful pregnancies and were intimidated by the scorn of that society in conceiving out of wedlock, are now stepping forward with claims of unjust oppression depriving them of their children. They claim to have been coerced by social agencies, medical workers and churches.

Nothing happens in a familial vacuum in these cases. Nowhere does there appear in the news reports relating to this new social grievance, the role of the parents when these people who are now joining a class-action suit, were young and vulnerable. The simple fact is, there was an attitude of shame prevalent in society at the very thought that young boys and girls in their teens would be sexually active and girls would become pregnant.

At that time it was a social shock, one that would serve to effectively excommunicate someone socially. Not only the young girl and her boyfriend, but the parents as well. Bringing shame to the family, which would respond by attempting to hide the fact of the pregnancy. There were parents who were abusive and disowned their daughters, leaving them to fend for themselves.

Abortions at an earlier time were not as readily available, and young women and girls were exhorted to complete their pregnancy, but with shame and in privacy, to be removed to special 'homes' where they would be cared for until birth, when the baby would be delivered and taken into the custody of the agency caring for the unmarried, pregnant young women.

It was the customary thing to do. It may have well been, as many claim, a travesty of justice, but it was the cultural, societal norm of the time. The prevailing philosophy was that a child born out of wedlock, particularly to a young dependent teenager, was an affront to all that was held to be decent and normal. The child would have a far better life adopted by a married couple. That was an accepted reality.

People in society at present have become accustomed to understanding now that it is no longer shocking that unmarried women have children, there is a large demographic of single-parent families, and no shame attaches to that fact. It may not represent the best-case scenario for children to be brought up in single-parent homes, and it is certainly difficult for the sole parent to shoulder full responsibility customarily shared by two, but it does work.

Currently, we have a society that has immersed itself in a blame-game. And concurrent with those who blame, are those who apologize and regret the part they played in an unfolding social scheme seen as normal for its time. It is true that the young women and girls were not fully informed of their rights, that many of those in whose care they were given - by their families - felt them to be immature and not needful of being informed of possible options.

On the other hand, memory is a strange thing; it is not immutable. Memory can change to include actions we would prefer to have occurred, or emotions we feel we should have felt. Casting one's mind back 50, 40, 30 years to how something played out and the manner in which we related to an event can prove to be elastic; not everything is recalled with a degree of accuracy. Young girls undergoing pregnancy want it to be over and done with.

They feel the emotions related to being caught in a situation that gives them no credit, and they are confused and resentful and just want it all to go away. And it eventually does. Leaving lingering doubts. Calling for a royal commission of enquiry is rather typical of Canadians reacting to something that occurred which now makes them uncomfortable.

Our newer culture of blame, grievance, victimhood, regret and alternately, shame, apologies and mea culpas represents where we are now as a nation. Also where we are is represented by a growing phenomenon of litigation procedures, of law firms going after large explosive group cases of purported wrong-doings by agencies, governments and elements within society which have over the course of time allgedly victimized someone.

The original intent was not, of course, victimization, but rather 'normalization' in altering someone's misfortune to represent a discreet misadventure, giving them the opportunity to join the rest of society implacably in pursuit of normal lives. The entire circumstances represented a universal social compact to protect the integrity of the family unit.

The Trust of a People

Britain's David Cameron and American President Barack Obama insist that their plans have not changed. There will be no hasty pull-back from Afghanistan. Plans are on track to continue training over a half-million Afghan military and police to ensure they have the capability of thwarting the resurgent Taliban plans to recapture the country with the departure of ISAF and NATO. And, as far as the U.S. and G.B. are concerned, that won't be until 2014.

When, they insist, the Afghan military and police will be far more proficient in their professions thanks to Western training, and capable of supporting their current government. As though training Afghans in the art of war Western-style will make them more fully capable of battling those who fight the traditional way in the country. Who was it, after all, who doggedly ousted U.S.S.R. troops in the Russian invasion?

There is a huge distance in ethology between the East and the West. The East has a long tradition of invasions and resistance and eventual retreat until the next invasion - just around the historical corner - erupts to visit upon them yet again the need to be patient, to resist, to be patient, to endure. The West has little patience as compared to Afghans who have been well schooled in its existential need.

The West insisted that what had to be done was to gain the trust of a people who instinctively draw back in distaste, fear and dislike when encountering a non-Muslim, a foreigner. Those who come to disrupt normalcy, to turn their lives inside out and upside down. For they invariably do, and resentment and bitterness accompany their arrival, greeting them, turning into antipathy, then hatred.

NATO troops, particularly Canadian, set out to gain trust by immersing themselves closely in the landscape beside villages where they would often appear to dialogue with the village elders in loya jirgas, where they promised to build schools and wells, roads and clinics, if the villagers would only trust them, and give them prior helpful notice of the appearance of the Taliban - and those deadly IEDs.

There appeared to be some headway made, even as there were countless victims in the process, both Afghan citizens and NATO personnel. But time is not on the side of the West. That legendary patience of a people long accustomed to oppression, manipulation and violence will aid the Afghans to weather whatever future storms arrive with the departure of NATO.

And, apart from urban-dwelling Afghan women, the population wishes to be shed of the foreign, occupying presence. There have been too many Afghan casualties, civilians harmed by the presence of foreigners. Far more may have been maimed or murdered by the Taliban, but they are Afghans, not foreigners; it seems to make them no less grief-stricken, but the events almost palatable; historical tribal differences.

If there was once trust between those two religious-social solitudes, the 21st Century meeting the 18th, it is now steadily slipping away. And that elusive state of being cannot be recaptured for it has dissipated as a result of those two cultures colliding in mutual antipathies, visceral and permanent.

As much as Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a volatile, disturbed personality at the best of times, fervently desires to remain in his post with his government intact, he is torn between wishing NATO to remain to protect him, and his wish to see the last of the foreign troops, diplomats, humanitarian workers, depart.

And once they do, as they most certainly will; the latter because he has insisted that foreign security guards may no longer be used to protect the lives of foreign aid workers, but Afghan police instead; the former because increasingly the raging enmity between Afghan and NATO is proceeding apace, and trust is a word whose echo has an eerily familiar ring of defeat.

What - If ...

"What if Iran were prepared to do a nuclear test? And if it were done not on Iranian territory, but instead without looking back at world opinion, done where nuclear tests always took place, where people stood ready to export nuclear expertise and technology in exchange for hard currency - in North Korea?
"That would be a sensation, although not quite a surprise, to be sure. Intelligence services have observed a close degree of cooperation between North Korean and Iranian experts over a period of years for the preparation of a nuclear test, although the previous assumptions centered on the prospect of an underground nuclear test in Iranian territory." Hans Ruhle former West German security official: report in Berlin's Die Welt

Held, of course, to be speculative, since there is as yet no direct evidence, but merely a modicum and more of reasonable speculation, given the relationship and the reputations of each of these countries. Covert activity both have been well engaged in, underscores the reality that such a scenario is indeed completely feasible.

And Mr. Ruhle revealed his interesting contemplative thoughts just as President Barack Obama reassuringly informed his American constituents and partner-in-peace Israel that there is no reason for concern at the moment, since:

"Iran does not yet have a nuclear weapon and is not yet in a position to obtain a nuclear weapon without us having a pretty long lead time in which we will know that they are making that attempt."

Don't we already know that "they are making that attempt"? Goodness, we thought we knew that already. And we were obviously mistaken, since we have it on the highest authority - Nobel Laureate level no less - that we are clearly self-deluded. And here we were attributing delusion to the Islamic Republic of Iran. How wrong can one be?

Very wrong, it appears, although it is not necessarily those who are 'unduly' alarmed by the prospect, the very clear, very near prospect, of Iran becoming the proud possessor of nuclear arsenals. Yet scientists around the world are debating just that very real possibility, as having already occurred. That North Korea has already guest-hosted an event or two on behalf of their great good friend, Iran.

A report last month appearing in the science magazine Nature suggested that possibility. It is not noted for publishing creatively imaginative science fiction, as fascinating as that genre is. The magazine reported on a Swedish scientific study that came to the conclusion that North Korea conducted two small-scale, very hushed, nuclear tests in mid-April and mid-May, 2010. Hush!

Dr. Lars-Erik De Geer, an atmospheric scientist with the Swedish Defence Research Agency, Stockholm, initiated research into such bizarre claims as an Iranian-North Korean binary test series of nuclear fusion. South Korean scientists affirmed their detection of the radioactive gas xenon during that very same time frame.

Dr. De Geer busied himself for a year studying radioisotope data from monitoring stations in South Korea, Russia and Japan. His conclusion? "North Korea carried out two small nuclear tests in April and May 2010 that caused explosions in the range of 50 - 200 tonnes of TNT." A modest, and notable initiation, geared to expansion.

The UN's IAEA asked Iran last November for an explanation of evidence that seemed to suggest Iran had experimented with advanced nuclear warhead design. An Israeli online intelligence and security news service quoted unnamed Japanese intelligence sources: "at least one of North Korea's covert tests in 2010 was carried out on an Iranian radioactive bomb or nuclear warhead."

And, rather convincingly the report indicates that Tehran had shipped a large quantity of highly enriched uranium to Pyongyang in May. Following which the Central Bank of Iran transferred $55-million to the account of the North Korean Atomic Energy Commission. Good friends cooperating nicely with one another.

Two impoverished nations consorting in tandem with costly atomic enterprises.

Fairly convincing little leads here and there ... and everywhere.

Increasingly Implausible

"Syria likely has one of the largest and most sophisticated chemical weapons programs in the world. Should Syria devolve into full-blown civil war, the security of its WMD should be of profound concern, as sectarian insurgents and Islamist terrorist groups may stand poised to seize chemical and perhaps even biological weapons." Charles Blair, Federation of American Scientists

"If Syria collapses into chaos or the army splits between Assad's fellow Alawites and the majority Sunnis, a key question will be the fate of these chemical weapons and their delivery systems. Terrorist groups, such as Assad's friends, Hezbollah and Hamas, would love to get sarin warheads." Bruce Riedel, Brookings Institution

"The question is when, not if. And the big question is what is going to come the day after. The immediate concern is the huge stockpiles of chemicals, biologicals, strategic capabilities, that are still going into Syria. I don't know who is going to own those the day after." Major General Amir Eshel, Israel armed forces planning chief

We knew that Libya had stockpiled chemical weapons. There was concern expressed that those deadly chemicals, unguarded, left within corroding metal containers, would be looted by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, by other terrorist militias, and used to create further mayhem throughout the world. But here in an equally volatile, viciously brutal insurrection and regime pay-back is Syria, with a far more dangerous, far greater stockpile of chemical weapons of mass destruction.

The weapons caches that had been amassed in Iraq by its tyrant, Saddam Hussein, were handily looted of over 330 tonnes of military-grade high explosives. Despite the presence of over 200,000 coalition troops having entered the country, having dispatched Saddam and his military, and being in control of the situation. But 'control of the situation' is a problem, as testified by that successful looting. Those high-grade explosives came in very handy, used in IEDs.

Areas of the world that are by their very nature socially and politically unstable, are most certainly unsuited to having such weapons, but it is the wealthy, industrialized countries of the world that welcome them as clients. And then, those countries go to war with the very unstable regimes that they have armed, just as Britain did with Libya, after selling it huge amounts of munitions.

A country like Pakistan, with its unstable, parochial, paranoid politics, a potently violent threat to its neighbours, India and Afghanistan another case in point. Pakistan, like India, is a nuclear-owning nation, with a well-stocked arsenal of nuclear weapons.

The better to threaten its neighbours with. The better to ensure that no Western nations either singly or in combination would like to take it on militarily. The better to ensure that those sane, Western nations both nuclear-possessing and not, remain deeply concerned with maintaining friendly relations with Pakistan, with assuaging its tender feelings, with persuading it toward sanity.

Now, attention has turned to imploding Syria, where government troops have gone on an armed rampage through heavily populated cities with resident opponents to the current Alawite regime. Incidents of torture, rape, mass slaughter, incessant shelling of highly-populated centres auger ill for the future of such a divided country. There are chemical weapons production facilities located throughout this country with its now-fragile government.

President al-Assad speaks repeatedly of terrorists, of al-Qaeda lurking in the background of the protest movement, not necessarily part of it, though there may be infiltrations, but lingering in the shadows, prepared to strike when the time is right. What then, of the hundreds of tonnes of chemical weapons, the chemical warheads, along with Scud B and C ballistic missiles, and conventional artillery shells?

"The situation in Syria is unprecedented. Never before has a WMD-armed country fallen into civil war", according to Charles Blair of the Federation of American Scientists in a recent report for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. And here is food for further thought, courtesy of Mr. Blair:

"The best possible outcome, in terms of controlling Syria's enormous WMD arsenal, would be for Assad to maintain power. But such an outcome seems increasingly implausible."

A puzzle within a conundrum within a wicked dilemma.

Guilty, Murder in the First Degree

Another instance of evil roaming the world, unchallenged. Another monstrous personality unleashed on the world, to do irreparable damage, until finally brought to justice. The destroyer of many lives will now sit in a penitentiary cell for a quarter-century at the very least, perhaps more, although the man does aspire and plan how he will continue his life eventually, after parole. He will still, presumably have enough of his life left to live out as he will.

And society, having extracted its disciplinary penalty on another of its psychopaths who succumbed to yet another psychotic rage, can brace itself for that future time when a murderer with little in the way of conscience is released. His children shudder at the very thought of coming in contact once again with the brute that is their father. His former wives, all three of them, can relish twenty-five years free of him.

His three wives, and his three children will never, irrespective of the outcome of this trial, live normal lives, however. The memory of their victimization is seared deeply within their souls. Life with that inhumane creature similar in effect to living through the horrors of a vicious war; the effects life-lasting, deeply entrenched, completely debilitating. Although they still have their lives to get on with, however they may manage to.

For the man he murdered, although claiming he did not; merely did he kill him, instead, life is no more. For that man's wife and that man's children, their father is a loving memory, one that will never leave their consciousness though they far prefer that he be still with them, to return their feelings of cherished intimate and trusting relations. The burden of absence is theirs, he cannot be restored to life.

The brutal attack that Kevin Gregson submitted police officer Eric Czapnik to was the considered action of a man whose temperament was a trial and a tribulation, causing anguish and fear, to all who knew him intimately. His parents, his siblings, his wives, his children. From his teen years the man was symptomatic of an inner fury and hatred that nothing could depress.

He used intimidation and brute force to obtain whatever it was he desired. And this was the technique he utilized when he confronted Eric Czapnik seated in his police cruiser in front of the Ottawa Civic Hospital on December 29, 2009, and mortally slashed his throat for resisting the order to hand over his police-issued gun to the psychopath.

It is a pity, in so many ways, that society has no way of culling from its midst such distinctly cruel and threatening life-forces for evil. But we cannot prognosticate, cannot truly know how such abusive and dreadful people will act out their lives, leaving broken souls in their wake. Until they commit that final act of depravity, of taking someone's life, only then are we able to remove that creature from actively pursuing mayhem and murder.

What a profound dilemma.