The Epitome Proponant of Critical Race Theory

"[The First Nations Confederacy of Cultural Education Centres representative is a] wacko Indigenous House-Slave."

"[Israel], Jewish White Supremacists [the United States and the Commonwealth nations are apartheid colonies whose occupants must leave]: Come get your garbage, Europe!"

"[The CRTC should] cater to racialized voices in the face of the media oligarchy that is defrauding the public in Canada."

"Zios [are] directing their attack dogs [on me]."

Laith Marouf, principal, Community Advocacy Media Centre

Laith Marouf  (Peter McCabe / THE GAZETTE )

"Mr. Minister [Diversity and Inclusion Minister Ahmed Hussen]: You are taking us for fools. You are calling on CMAC [Community Advocacy Media Centre] to answer 'how they came to hire Laith Marouf'?"

"Are you not aware that he and his wife Gretchen King 'are' CMAC?"

"That they and CMAC share the same address? That it was you and Marouf who announced this program?"

Hillel Neuer, executive director, UN Watch

The Liberal government of Justin Trudeau has been quiet, very quiet on this file. The actual Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez -- under whose imprimatur the contract was signed to hire the Community Advocacy Media Centre and Palestinian-Syrian activist and racist-slanderer Laith Marouf, well known for his penchant for offhand racist slanders, to head an anti-racist program for Canadian media -- has said nothing, much less apologized for gross ineptitude.

It seems that information is being revealed from investigators that this man who starts his anti-race lectures by first making certain that his media listeners are quite aware of Israel's "Apartheid" status and that Palestinians are overdue their claims to the land that Israel sits on, before engaging with the terms of the contract he was hired to fulfill as the anti-racist expert the government and Minister Hussen touted him to be.

The Canadian-Radio-Television and Telecommunication Commission has developed a long trusting association with this same man as an adviser on race relations and equity. The $133,000 contract with Canadian Heritage pales before the $500,000 doled out to him by the CRTC for his professional services. Just as Heritage Canada couldn't bother Googling inconvenient racist statements made by this man, neither did the CRTC.

Ineptitude, or did they just not care? Marouf's blistering advocacy for BDS, his student activist days, blocking Jewish speakers from addressing university audiences, his daubings of racist, antisemitic slogans on university campuses, his snarling references to Jews as 'white-supremacists', his hateful comments about Jamaican-American Colin Powell, all mark him as a bigot of the first water.

But no one in this Liberal government of Justin Trudeau, committed to woke ideology cared to know, and knew no care in developing a working relationship with him, instead invoking with pride their trust in his professional qualities as a spokesman against racism. Even though in 2020 he accused the CRTC of enabling "an apartheid on the airwaves", they snuggled up to him.

This, the expert on the evils of racist dogma pervading our airwaves, who once spoke of the CBC president as a "pimp of racist, Genocidal, colonialist, Imperialist and Supremacist propaganda". 

Laith Marouf
Policy Consultant, Community Media Advocacy Centre
1861 Rue wellington,
Montreal, Quebec, H3K1W2,
cmac@riseup.net

RE: Request for information with respect to the application for deferral account funding of the Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC) in the proceeding initiated by Telecom and Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2020-124

The Commission is in receipt of the application for deferral account funding filed by the Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC) in respect of the above-noted proceeding. The purpose of this letter is to request additional information from CMAC regarding its applications for costs.

Before further consideration of the application may be undertaken, CMAC is requested to provide the following information:

1. The record appears to indicate that the claimants, Mr. Laith Marouf and Dr. Gretchen King have positions within CMAC as Policy Consultant and Secretary, respectively. Accordingly, it may be appropriate to categorize the claimants as in-house consultants, subject to a daily rate of $470, rather than external senior consultants subject to an hourly rate of $225. Please clarify whether these are paid staff positions within CMAC and to what extent the claimants take part in or control the day-to-day operations of the organization^Footnote1.
2. If the claimants do not have paid positions within CMAC or control its day-to-day operations, please provide details regarding their specialized knowledge or relevant experience, which would relate to the subject matter of the proceeding.^Footnote2

CMAC is to file a response to the request for information by 3 March 2021.

A copy of this letter and all related correspondence will be added to the record of the proceeding.

Sincerely,

 

Where There's Smoke, There's Fire

"The statements, to me, are totally ridiculous. They exaggerate and distort stuff that I wrote like 15, 20 years ago and they take citations out of context to make me say things that I did not say."
"And especially implying that I'm some kind of neo-Nazi. It's just, like, totally crazy."
"I did attack LGBTQ groups, because I don't think they represent me as a gay man. They imply that I'm anti-gay. No. This is crazy. I'm gay."
"It's not a question of pandering [Mr. Bernier's defence of Mr. Masse] to anyone today. It's a question of, we've been working together very closely for 15 years. That's why he's [Bernier] defending me."
Martin Masse, friend and adviser to Maxime Bernier, leader, The Peoples' Party

"As a non-profit, nonpartisan human rights organization, B'nai Brith is well known for regularly identifying the promoters of hatred, racism and anti-Semitism from all sectors of Canadian society."
"One would expect that the leader of a federal party would immediately expunge senior staff members who have expressed such radical and repulsive views when it is called to their attention."
"We were shocked that, upon presenting this information to Mr. Bernier, he defended his top adviser, Mr. Masse."
Michael Mostyn, CEO, B'nai Brith Canada

"I think Max is pandering to the wrong people by defending the exposed hateful prejudices of his policy adviser."
"Unfortunately it does seem to be a confirmation of sorts that perhaps it's a reflection of desperation for votes, perhaps it's an unwillingness to make hard decisions in a party which is struggling to find its feet."
Peter Kent, former Conservative cabinet minister

"The racist people are not welcome in the party and that won't change. That's crazy. I'm not surprised, [at the charges] because our party's doing very well (in fundraising and fielding candidates)."
"Maybe they [B'nai Brith] want to do that [charge Masse with bigotry] because they’re supporting another party. I think, doing that, they are not doing a favour to their organization. Because it’s [their charges] not credible."
Maxime Bernier, leader, People's Party of Canada

People's Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier in January.   Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press

Sooner or later, intense sleuthing from any source looking to unearth the true, underlying intentions, impressions and beliefs of political operatives find what can only be classified as 'incriminating evidence' of beliefs and thought-processes that do betray the presence of prejudice and bigotry and plain old misinformed conclusions on the part of those running for public office or working behind the scenes to aid those politicians whose agendas they support by delving into the record -- often through the Internet, sometimes through otherwise-published commentary -- to dig up old statements.

Every party seems to attract the occasional presence of individuals with ideas, preconceptions and beliefs that are decidedly unsavoury and the revelations that those statements exhibiting their social and political positions identifying them as unsuitable for the position they hold, bring opprobrium to the party they belong to. Generally, any political party that discovers in their midst the presence of those with unacceptable ideological strains of illogic or discriminatory beliefs will make short shrift of distancing themselves.

The "independent investigation" undertaken by B'nai Brith Canada, a Jewish-Canadian group whose focus is on defending human rights and unearthing instances of public abuse against minority groups, in particular Jews, found commentary by Maxime Bernier's right-hand man and personal friend that offended the standards of equality and human rights. In a review of his work for a now-defunct online media outlet, Le Quebecois Libre, the views expressed by Martin Masse failed to pass the standard test of social decency.

His commentary on Israel and U.S. interventionism in the Middle East while defending notorious right-wing ideologues failed to sit well with B'nai Brith, leading them to publish a press release with links to over a dozen articles from the outlet, written by this man in which his prejudices were revealed. In response Messrs. Bernier and Masse speculated that an underlying political agenda motivated the human rights group to accuse Mr. Masse of deceit and bigotry; presumably that B'nai Brith was working to support the Conservative Party of Canada against the breakaway PPC.

B'nai Brith itself is in full denial, holding a "lengthy dossier" reflecting Mr. Masse's sentiments and comments apart from those linked and referred to in their media release. Mr. Masse's defence, for example published in 2002, of France's Jean-Marie Le Pen (since superceded by his more moderate daughter) a man who was convicted several times of denial of the Holocaust, a crime under French law, identifies Mr. Masse's sympathies as linked with those of Mr. Le Pen.

Writing on the same forum about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict his views, sympathetic to the Palestinians, accused Israel of co-opting Zionism as "just another fancy justification for killing and displacing Palestinians", a whopping libel if there ever was one. He accused countries of the West of interventions making the situation in the Middle East even more egregiously violent. The philosophy of libertarianism (the ideological bent of the Internet site he wrote on) should not mitigate toward a pro-Israel position, he averred.

A 2008 article he wrote decried "femi-fascists" in expressing opposition to forcing men-only drinking establishments in Quebec to relent and permit women entry, referring to women's gyms barring men representing a double standard. an absurd equation of unsupportable equivalency. He also characterized groups such as B'nai Brith back in 2000 as "ethnic barons" for which political power is a preoccupying concern. His character revealed by his own words.

Bernier with longtime friend and adviser Martin Masse, who has helped Mr. Bernier to set up his new political party after the parting with the Conservative Party of Canada. (Submitted )

The Prestige and Privilege of Higher Education : Diversity, Equity, Inclusiveness

"Why is diversity so important?"
"Diversity is a powerful agent of change. Indeed, diversity is an imperative that must be embraced if colleges and universities are to be successful in a pluralistic and interconnected world."
Dalhousie University, 200 years of intellectual rigour

"The academy has been so focused on attaining diversity by race and gender [which are valuable] that it has created a hostile climate for people who think differently."
"The American Academy has -- arguably become a politically orthodox and quasi-religious institution."
Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind

"Loud noises, including whooping and traditional applause, could pose an issue for students with disabilities, such as those with anxiety or sensory issues."
"[Jazz hands are required at debates, panels and talks, along with at meetings of the student senate.]"
"Jazz hands [was designed to support those with disabilities and/or sensory conditions to participate in events."
"Students' unions strive to make their events welcoming to all of their students by acknowledging their experiences and responding to their needs."
Manchester University student union

Oh dear, the poor darlings, all of them. Due regard for their comfort and feelings must always be uppermost in mind at today's institutes of higher learning. And so, we must, all of us be aware, those within the sacred halls of universities where the young are nurtured, instilled with obligatory compassion for others, while science, history, politics, economics are all filtered through the delicate lens of leftist perception and compassion for the social-economic-political-non-gendered underdogs of society in the new(ish) social compact to produce sterling citizens of tomorrow today.

Dalhousie University, to celebrate its 200 centuries of existence as a hallowed hall of cerebral functioning has recognized a problem in its ceremonial mace; it is now viewed as an oppressive symbol of an oppressive past. So its function is being redesigned to enable it to "better reflect the University's evolving values and commitment to diversity and inclusiveness". Oh, thank heavens, really!

As for Lord Dalhousie who founded that eponymous institution, the old colonialist pale-male no longer appears to reflect the humanitarian values Dalhousie is now embracing. Did you know that Lord Dalhousie spoke of blacks fleeing the perdition of the United States post War of 1812 as "slaves by habit and education"? Well, he damn well did, the old rogue. What to do? Strike a scholarly panel to debate and probe: honour or expunge?

This past fall, Michelle Williams – the director of the Indigenous Blacks & Mi’kmaq Initiative, Schulich School of Law – was selected as co-leader of the Diversity and Inclusiveness Strategy. She replaced Dr. Wanda Thomas Bernard who completed her term summer 2017 after being appointed to the Canadian Senate. Michelle has been working alongside Jasmine Walsh, co-leader and assistant vice president, Human Resources.  Dal News

What is indisputable, however, is that Dalhousie has signed on to a Strategic Priority to "foster a collegial culture grounded in diversity and inclusiveness". To that end, an advert for a new dean of students specified that candidates be "racially visible". Courses? How about one on pulp fiction, another on popular culture, mystery and detective fiction, science fiction, fan culture, afrofuturism?
No kidding, chum...

Front and centre, top of mind, eclipsing all other matters of concern however notable is the new face of the Academy: anti-racism, anti-oppression, and so then it becomes de rigueur that Pride Week, Respect Week, African Heritage Month, Mi'kmaq History Month and Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence be regarded as the fulcrum spokes around which Dalhousie and others of its accreditation ilk revolve. Of course Dalhousie has lots and lots of company.

Leaving Canada for London: students there now are no longer to use loud clapping, whoops and any noisy applause in appreciation of concerts or lectures. Sara Khan, Manchester University's liberation and access officer nixed traditional applause as being insufficiently "accessible", so clapping is banned and "jazz hands" is in, where people wave their hands about, instead, urging "student groups and societies to do the same".

The National Union of Students adopted "jazz hands" in 2015 on the grounds that clapping "triggers anxiety". Students who whoop, cheer and clap should, feels the National Union of Students, face "consequences". Audiences must be aware that to whoop in expressing support for a speaker has a "serious impact" on disabled students who under those circumstances, will find attendance at conferences "inaccessible".

Oxford University's equality and diversity unit last year issued guidance to its students advising that those who avoid making eye contact with their fellows could be guilty of racism. Can't get too much more august than Oxford; can't get too much more threatening than to be accused of (shudder) racism. "Trigger warnings" have been issued at University of Glasgow for theology students studying Jesus Christ's crucifixion; informed in advance they may view distressing images, and thus have permission to leave, should they wish to.

Jazz Hands...British Sign Language action for applause  The Independent

Truth and Consequences

"It pretended to be 'unite the right' but it was basically Nazis saying, 'shit or get off the pot, become a white nationalist or f---k off'. And a lot of people told them to f--k off."
"It seemed like they were drifting into the arena of the unwell. This gathering was a lie. It purported to be about statues; it purported to be about community, but it was really about polarizing the right and saying, 'You are with us or against us'. And I think they're going to find that everyone is against them. Their rhetoric got a woman killed and a boy put in prison."
"It cut the alt-right off from everyone else. [the left and the media] see us all as one dumb unified group, and we're not. And I think what we learned this weekend is, we shouldn't be."
Gavin McInnes, Vice co-founder, head, Proud Boys

Alt-right rally members on Aug. 12, 2017 in Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va. Rebel Media's reporting from the rally could spell the end for the right-wing organization, Tim Harper writes.  (Go Nakamura / TNS)

Suddenly, Canada's most prominent right-wing personality and his online website The Rebel have been bathed in a very compromising and unattractive light, shading it with a link to a ideology it would vastly prefer not to be associated with. Some of Ezra Levant's most prominent contributors to The Rebel have reacted with viral distaste to any hint in the public eye of possible association however remote and however much denied with the odious alt-right which distinguished itself with brute violence in Charlottesville last weekend.

The white supremacist gathering of neo-Nazis, the KKK fascist/racist illuminati, and the alt-right that used the concept of a protest against the removal of an historical monument to General Robert E. Lee of Civil War fame, to further their agenda of racial bigotry, decrying the presence of immigrants, of Blacks and particularly of Jews in America diluting the fabric of white culture and society as an affront to the United States that must be resisted by any means -- violence if necessary, and violence is always necessary to prove they mean business -- made conservatives blanch in disgust.

"When I first heard of the alt-right a year ago, I thought it simply meant the insurgent right, the politically incorrect right, the grassroots right, the nationalistic right", wrote Ezra Levant in a 'memo' to his staff and contributors explaining his reaction and instant efforts to distance himself and The Rebel from any whiff of connection to those who distinguished themselves in Charlottesville. The situation is similar to what occurs at leftist peace gatherings protesting war, where signs accusing Israel of war-mongering held by Palestinian sympathizers are hoisted alongside the flag of Hamas.

"But the alt-right ha changed into something new, especially since Trump's election. Now the leading figure -- at least in terms of media attention -- is Richard Spencer, and other white nationalists. By that, I mean people whose central organizing political principle is race", he went on, anxious to impress his audience with the sincerity of his rejection of all that the alt-right and its pals represent.

"There were actually some Nazi swastika flags in Charlottesville. Whether or not they were being genuinely carried, or carried by agents provocateurs trying to embarrass the alt-right isn't even important. They were there -- and Spencer's torchlit walk had other Nazi symbology, including the 'Sieg Heil' arm salute, and the chant of 'blood and soil' -- which was a slogan popularized by the Nazis. Sorry, that's not conservative, that's just racist, and I think it's unpatriotic to mimic one of America's greatest historical enemies."

Up until this sordid and violent event in Charlottesville, The Rebel appeared to support the alt-right to a degree, but now that it has linked with white supremacism, backing away with haste certainly appeared the best-case scenario to assure staff and contributors that there was no support of the unsupportable from that quarter. The manslaughter charge against a 20-year-old for vehicular homicide of 32-year-old Heather Heyer has transfixed the U.S. with the horror of internecine warfare.

That it was actual internecine warfare that cost the lives of an estimated 620,000 Americans ideologically polarized over Black slavery among other issues that brought about this current atrocity makes it all the more appalling in that race and bigotry have never been very distant from the public mind. The 'boy' mentioned by McInnis has been a Nazi admirer since childhood; that he also has a medical record of psychosis he was treated for years ago, somewhat complicates the issue, but it was hate, pure and simple, that led him.

"What may have started as a concern over the [Rebel's] harsh tone taken on some subjects came to a head with this weekend's events in Charlottesville, Virginia. [The protest] was really an anti-Semitic white power rally."
"I am not comfortable being associated with a group that, rightly or wrongly, is being increasingly viewed as associated with the likes of Richard Spencer. Like many of you, I had family that fought the Nazis. I never want to be in the same room as one."
"What The Rebel suffers from is a lack of editorial and behavioural judgement that left unchecked will destroy it and those around it."
Brian Lilley, Rebel co-founder

John Robson‏ @thejohnrobson

Parting ways with The Rebel

4:48 PM - 15 Aug 2017

• 23 Retweets
• 13 Likes
• 

14 replies 23 retweets 13 likes

A Nation Divided

"[Heather] Heyer was struck down by a vehicle while exercising her peaceful first-amendment right to free speech."
"This senseless act of violence rips a hole in our collective hearts."
Charlottesville city official statement

"Donald Trump should] look at himself in the mirror."
"[He] should think very deeply about who he consorted with in his campaign, and the forces they chose to work with in their quest for political advancement."
Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer

"And yet here it was, the chants of 'Jews will not replace us' (as?). I had two more personal encounters. At Dogwood Vietnam Memorial, a man in a floppy beige sunhat started following me and explaining to me the lie of the Holocaust, the evil of the Jews, the value of DNA in determining purity. I retreated as he ran after me, screaming, 'My mother says I’m a Jew! My MOTHER! Does that mean I’m entitled to something?' (I resisted replying, 'Your mother’s love.')"
Nathan Guttman, 12 August 2017, What a Jewish Journalist saw in Charlottesville, Forward

Members of the KKK escorted by police past a large group of protesters during a rally in Charlottesville, Va. Steve Helber / AP

Journalist Nathan Guttman wrote a first-hand account of his day in now-infamous Charlottesville, there to observe the proceedings as neo-Nazis and far-right activists, the KKK and others marched to make their point that the United States belongs to red-blooded white Americans. None others need apply. They were reacting to the demands by left-wing activists and members of the Black Lives Matter group and their supporters that a century-old statue of a Confederate hero of the American Civil War, General Robert E. Lee, be removed, taken down, hidden, destroyed.

Like sensitive, progressive leftists and self-styled human-rights activists everywhere they demand that history be rewritten to obliterate all traces of those who fought for rights and values today recognized as contrary to the current social values of an enlightened society. Those who were once victims decry and embrace their victimhood at one and the same time, and any visual reminders of what, how and why they suffered, they claim triggers new pain and humiliation.

The past cannot be undone. It happened, and it is called history. We are meant to view history with today's vision, but we are not meant to believe that if we reject the history that betrays our humanity history will be re-enacted and everything will turn out just fine. There are statues of Civil War heroes to the Confederate cause in countless places in the United States. There is also the undeniable fact that the hallowed fathers of the American Constitution like humanist, intellectual and scientist of his day Benjamin Franklin was a slave-owner.

And so was George Washington, and so too was James Madison. Of the 55 founding fathers of the United States of America, 49 percent were slave owners. Should they be expelled from the annals of American history? If monuments and statues must be destroyed, why stop with Robert E. Lee? The absurdity of the righteous demands that such reminders of a dark place in history be abolished and with it the history they represent is beyond impossible.

Setting that aside as a provocation, there is nothing that can explain or exculpate the actions and counter-accusations of those who embrace fascism and express their frustrations in the form of verbal violence, let alone physical violence. That the current President of the United States issued an oblique condemnation of a violent far-right reaction to the entitled demands of those who wear their victimhood with pride and vehemence readily interpreted by the far right as support of their position is a signal that the polarized position of right and left in their extremes have much in common.

The deranged James Alex Fields Jr. whose use of a vehicle to ram the left-wing protesters marks him as an unrepentant murderer, is also someone who was once treated for psychotic behaviour. David Duke and others of his ilk are not insane, but they are dangerously threatening to those who do not subscribe to their fascination with the belief in superior and inferior humanity. And it seems that President Trump has given those threats to the universality of human equality an unspoken lift.

The mother of Fields Jr. whose name is Samantha Bloom may be a woman, given her name and its possible connections, whose offspring is a self-hating Jew by birth to a Jewish woman. It is not unheard of that some fundamentally troubled people detest that from which they were derived; this son of a woman named Bloom appears to have always venerated Adolf Hitler and everything the Fuhrer represented.

His horrified, stricken mother does not believe that her presided supports fascism though those who admire him, fascists, nationalists, anti-Semites and Hitler enthusiasts shouted "Blood and Soil", as they marched through the streets of Charlottesville in defence of a Confederate statue. And counter protesters were there in their numbers to oppose the fascists before one woman died and 35 people were injured by an incoherent man who might have shouted at a Jewish reporter: "My mother says I’m a Jew! My MOTHER! Does that mean I’m entitled to something?"

He is entitled to a fair trial. And the nation is entitled to justice.

Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Steve Helber/AP

"Keep Religion Out of Public Schools"

"It is deeply troubling to see elected officials participate in meetings where they do not challenge people advocating to deny the human rights of fellow Canadians based on irrational fear and hatred."
Ihsaan Gardee, executive director, National Council of Canadian Muslims

"This meeting was about the place of religion in public schools. That meeting was attended by a number of people from a number of different groups, including people from Rise Canada."
"Kellie does not believe that this longstanding Canadian practice [of keeping religion separate from education in public schools] should be changed to accommodate one group.”
"She is committed to building a country that promotes the shared values of hard work, generosity, freedom, tolerance, equality of opportunity and equality of the individual. That includes the freedom to practise your religion and the responsibility to be tolerant of other people's religions."
Michael Diamond, spokesperson, Conservative leadership candidate Leitch

A YouTube video shows Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch at an event with members of Rise Canada in Brampton on Sunday.  (RISE CANADA/YOUTUBE)

"We don't support or promote activities/dialogue against any religion or faith. We respect all."
"This was a free event and everyone was free to ask questions."
Concerned Parents of Canada

"This was an open public meeting where anyone could attend. We and many others heard about this meeting and attended. Other groups and individuals were present and spoke before Dr. Leitch arrived."
"And of course at the meeting anyone could raise their hand and ask questions."
Jennifer Bushmill, Rise Canada

Ihsaan Gardee speaks of irrational fear and hatred as a backlash by non-Muslims that people like him like to label "Islamophobia". There is nothing irrational about being inspired to fear terrorism, and terrorist acts that take place all over the globe as are all connected to Islam for the most part; at least the vast preponderance are, and the linkage of Islam and its sectarian and jihadist violence against other Muslims as well as non-Muslims through conflicts and blood-letting throughout the Middle East and North Africa and southwestern Asia is indisputable.

The spillovers of violently aggressive Islamist jihad into Europe and North America and elsewhere represent issues that non-Muslims deal with in obvious connections with Islam and terrorism. So it is hardly irrational to react to all these manifestations of Islam-inspired violence. And nor does that reaction or questioning of Islam denote unreasoning hatred or the label of "Islamophobic", a term which fundamentalist Islamist groups themselves favour in an effort to turn the tables on critics of Islam as biased racists to silence them for fear of earning such a label.

Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch appeared at a site in Brampton, Ontario last Sunday where she interacted with other people who had decided to show up at a rally whose purpose was to decry that public schools were becoming sites where Islamic prayer sessions were being conducted to service Muslim children and youth. Canada has no such tradition of turning over public schools for multiple use as prayer sites, and nor should any such public institution of a secular government paid for through universal taxes become such a site.

Present at the gathering was a controversial organization which considers Islam "a barbaric ideology" and in a democratic society free to express opinions of this sort, it is hardly surprising that citizens, based on what can be seen and attributed to Islam, feel its practices deserve that description. The Rise Canada group has taken it upon itself to counter mosque construction in Mississauga, Ontario. It was Concerned Parents of Canada, however, that arranged for this event to discuss their opposition to religious events taking place in Canadian schools.

Ron Banerjee, director of the Canadian Hindu Advocacy group introduced himself to Kellie Leitch on this occasion. He happened also to address the gathering, speaking of "Sharia creep". Indeed, a decade or so ago, Muslim groups in Ontario were intent on persuading the province to legitimize Sharia; in the end this was averted because of public backlash, but the effort continues, with both Muslim MPPs and MPs advancing the Islamist agenda by introducing motions to their legislatures condemning "Islamophobia".

That absurd labelling and its connotations are now so well engrained in people's consciousness, making them squeamish about wearing such a label imposed should they question anything about Islam, that it has become popular to support a motion such as this in the House of Commons, despite that a majority of Canadians, put to a vote would reject it.

As for promulgating hatred, and failing in the Canadian equality and pluralism values of respecting other religions, Islam fails on both counts. It was only last month that it was revealed that a mosque in Toronto and another in Montreal preached division and hatred and violence at Friday sermons, which were also posted in videos online. And where was the protesting Mr. Gardee then, let alone other Muslims choosing to defend the rights of others?

On February 18, 2017 CIJnews exposed excerpts from supplications (originally in Arabic) recited by Aymen Elkasrawy and Shaykh Abdool Hamid at Masjid Toronto mosque in 2016:

O Allah! We ask you… [to give us] victory over the enemies. O Allah! Raise the standing of Islam and the Muslims. O Allah! Give victory (help) to your oppressed slaves all over the world, east to west. O Allah! Give victory (help) to your slaves who believe in the oneness of Allah, O the Lord of the Worlds! O Allah! Destroy the criminals. O Allah! Destroy anyone who inflicts injustice on your slaves, O the Lord of the Worlds! O Allah! Count their number; slay them one by one and spare not one of them. O Allah! Do not defer [it] on them.O Allah! Seize them with the seizure of One Mighty, Omnipotent [referring to a Quranic verse that deals with the punishment Allah inflicted on Pharaoh and his people].

[O Allah!] Give us victory over the disbelieving people… O Allah! Give victory to Islam and raise the standing the Muslims. And humiliate the polytheism and polytheists. O Allah! Give victory (help) to your slaves who believe in the oneness of Allah, O the Lord of the Worlds!O Allah! Give them victory over the criminal people. O Allah! Destroy anyone who killed Muslims. O Allah! Destroy anyone who displaced the sons of the Muslims. O Allah! Count their number; slay them one by one and spare not one of them. O Allah! Purify Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews! O Allah! Purify Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews!

O Allah! Raise the standing of Islam and the Muslims.And humiliate the polytheism, the polytheists, the infidels and the atheists. And Give victory (help) to your slaves who believe in the oneness of Allah.O Allah! Give victory to our oppressed and deprived Muslim brothers and the mujahideen (those who engage in jihad) everywhere.O Allah! Pour on them patience and steadfast their feet. And give them victory over the disbelieving people. And give them victory over the evildoersAnd give them victory over the criminals.

See also:

• Supplications at Masjid Toronto Mosque: “Slay them one by one and spare not one of them” (click HERE)

Images on social media showed protesters carrying signs with anti-Muslim slogans as worshippers were entering a Toronto mosque.  Facebook

The photograph shown above represents reaction to the hate-mongering at Canadian mosques and the selective conscience of human-rights-demanding Muslims who fail to regard that fundamental right as reflecting universal rights, not rights specific to Muslims.

The Company They Keep ....

"At Crime Prevention Ottawa, we work closely with local residents, government, police, school boards, businesses, community services, child protection and other partners to reduce crime and build safer communities. So join us! After all, there is strength in numbers."

"It's a disappointing and puzzling decision for Ottawa to partner with NCCM [formerly named CAIR-Canada] on this event, given that their Crime Prevention Ottawa colleagues in other law-enforcement agencies such as the RCMP and Durham police have distanced themselves from the group in the past...."
"There are certainly less controversial organizations that the Ottawa police can choose to partner with at these sorts of events [public education programs]."
Michael Mostyn, CEO, B'nai Brith

"We find [NCCM/CAIR.CAN's] activities at best shady and misleading for the Muslim population of Canada."
Syed Raza, Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow

The purpose of Crime Prevention Ottawa's existence is to develop strategies to help ensure community safety, in the process addressing social problems such as violence directed against women, abuse of the disabled, hate crimes and neighbourhood gangs. In the hopes of reducing their incidence and helping the community to forge closer ties with disparate groups within society, fostering understanding and cohesion, committing to a social shield where crime and discord will fail to set down permanent roots.


In the past year there have been 64 commissions of hate crimes reported that have targeted blacks, LGBT, Jews and Muslims, according to Staff Sgt. Dave Zackrias representing the Diversity and Race Relations Unit of the Ottawa Police Service, who described the majority of those reports as representative of "mischief" such as graffiti of symbols and offensive labels, Internet hate speech, or harassment. Two of the incidents were genuinely seen to be physical assaults.

The Crime Prevention Ottawa group would like to reduce those social-assaultive incidents even further, to approach zero. To that end, they have mounted public events dedicated to discussions and educational forays into the commission of hate crimes. One, "Why Faith-Based Crime Prevention Matters", had a panel of two Christians and one Muslim; organizers had evidently failed to identify a need for a Jewish representative.

Rather surprisingly, under the circumstances wherein Jews, far less numerous as a demographic, are eight times likelier than Muslims, indeed any other group, to be targets of faith-related hate statistics. Interestingly enough, the Muslim panelist was Imam Zijad Delic whose appearance in 2010 at the Department of National Defence for an event revolving around Islam was cancelled, reflecting the discovery of his Islamist affiliations.

This man was involved in an invitation extended to a Taliban apologist proud of her collaboration with Hezbollah, at a Montreal speaking event. Imam Delic was front and centre as a leader in the Canadian Islamic Congress Shariah lobby for the province to officially adopt Sharia law. He supports the Organization of Islamic Conference's stridently entitled "blasphemy" initiative to make it a criminal offence to criticize Islam.

In the scheduling of the public event by the CPO, called "Addressing Hate Crimes: Creating a Safe City for All", once again no Jewish representation was involved, whereas black, LGBT and Muslim representatives were present. The Muslim representative being Amira Elghawaby, communications director of NCCM/CAIR.CAN. The National Council of Canadian Muslims was previously called CAIR.CAN., the Canadian chapter of the Islamist American organization, CAIR.

CAIR was identified as being linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and its junior affiliate, Hamas, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI feels CAIR is spectacularly unsuited as "an appropriate liaison partner" in any government outreach programs. NCCM now claims there is "no strong and/or continuing link to CAIR". 

Interestingly enough, the Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow is a Muslim group but not an Islamist group, which regularly denounces political Islam, promoting instead Islamic reform more in keeping with contemporary standards of moral justice and values. One might think that MFT would represent a far more useful and suitable partner for Crime Prevention Ottawa purposes, but one would be wrong, evidently.

Of the three people whose board makeup represents the CPO, one is a man, Sharmaarke Abdullahi, whose curriculum vitae on the Canadian Arab Institute site identifies him as having worked previously with the NCCM. What makes NCCM/CAIR.CAN's selection to work with Crime Prevention Ottawa even odder is the fact that the group remains involved in a libel suit it brought against the former prime minister's communications director who implied NCCM/CAIR.CAN has ties to Hamas.

Crime Prevention Ottawa Initiatives
CPO contributes to crime reduction and enhanced community safety in Ottawa through collaborative, evidence-based crime prevention.  Building on our Strategic Plan, CPO develops strategic initiatives to address key issues. 
 Our role is to: 

• Build community capacity
• Foster community action
• Nurture partnerships
• Engage in policy dialogue

 Our priorities are:

• Reducing violence against women
• Reducing crime in high risk neighbourhoods
• Working with youth in high risk environments

The Conceit of Hypocrisy

"[French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has argued this is not the time to cast 'suspicion' on French police, while the nation remains alert to the threat of ISIL terrorism]"
"This is a dangerous argument. The Islamic State has shown it is able to exploit feelings of anger and alienation to murderous intent."
"Now, more than ever, the police need to build trust with minority communities."
The New York Times editorial, August 7, 2016

This is surpassing strange, an American newspaper of repute chastising the French government for its lack of vision in not coming to grips with its uneasy institutional relationship with its black population. A black population which now has aligned itself with the "Black Lives Matter" movement that saw its inception in the United States, propelled by the very reality -- historical racism and present-day incidents of violence against American blacks -- in response to police violence.

Adama Traoré’s sister, Assa second from right, looks as a man holds a placard with a portrait of Traoré in a march in Paris on July 30. Traoré died in police custody. (Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images)

Adama Traore, a 24-year-old black man died while in police custody in a town close to Paris, on July 19. In a pattern that should be familiar to those who write editorials for the Times because it has happened time and again in American cities, occasionally exculpably vindicated, and just as often not. Mr. Traore's family insists when he entered police custody he was very alive, but dead a short time later, at the police station.

The autopsy the family demanded after an autopsy that claimed he died of a (sudden/instant/deadly) infection concluded that asphyxia was the cause of the death of this young man. There was no elaboration. But it seems that three police officers surrounded and bundled him, impairing his ability to breathe. The first claim by police after the death was that he had died of a heart attack. Little wonder the family and the black community in France are aghast and furious, taking up the banner of "Black Lives Matter".

The editorial in the Times appears to take great satisfaction in castigating France. One seems to recall in searching one's memory that in the early and mid-part of the last Century, France was open to welcoming, admiring and celebrating American black performers when in their homeland, the United States, segregation would not permit them to share civil amenities with whites. France doesn't have quite the racist baggage of the U.S.

It certainly has its own problems; the colonialism that produced French-speaking populations in Africa and brought them to the Republic which lauds itself on colour- and race- and religion-blindness in its equality-acceptance of all its citizens, is clearly marred by an undercurrent of white privilege and immigrant under-privilege. The response has been black and Muslim petty crime and renewed concerns over disaffected youth opting toward solidarity with Islamism.

The United States had no similar history of 18th and 19th Century colonialism; its history is that of a world champion intervenor and sometimes-bully. Yet here is the monumental impudence demonstrated by The New York Times, tittering behind its covered mouth, while gravely offering a lesson in racism-free relations for France's edification. In 1862 President Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery in the United States. Turn those last two numbers around and you have the year 1826, when France abolished slavery.

A Stridently Polarized Society

Dallas Police    Mark Hughes, an open-carry activist, incorrectly identified a suspect by Dallas police

A man with military experience who took pains to get additional training in the use of firearms and stealth assaults meant to extract the greatest possible harm inflicted specifically on armed but unprepared-for-assault police gloated even as he was wounded and surrounded by police preparing to send in an explosives-charged robot if he failed to surrender his weapons, has created intense social and political turmoil in the United States.

The perennial, divisive issue of lax gun laws and easy procurement rises and ebbs with each new report of yet another atrocity. The death toll by firearms in the United States is legendary, but the American appetite for gun ownership is equally legendary. Average citizens who support the right to own and bear arms, cite distrust of their own government and the need for citizens to protect themselves not only from criminals but from government agencies.

Micah Xavier Johnson did not personally suffer grinding poverty and lack of opportunity to plan his future. He did suffer the effects of bigotry within the general society of the United States since it is endemic, though strides have been made in recent decades long before a mixed-race president was elected to the Oval Office. The profiling of young black men, leading to interceptions and interrogations vastly disproportionate to their numbers, and the fatalities associated with them demand answers.

Biracial and very-culturally-black Barack Obama was led by his social conscience but it did not necessarily focus on black empowerment though his administration elevated competent black elites to as many positions in high office as possible. These black elites have comported themselves no differently than their white counterparts, yet the power of the presidency vested in a black man has not raised the bar of relations sufficiently between black and white in America.

The general atmosphere of racial disharmony is as firm as construction cement; strides in black empowerment and entitlements aside. The harm done by black-on-black violence stagnates opportunities for those who consider themselves oppressed. The reputation of black street gangs is such that law and order focuses on precedent, seeing stereotypical expectations of criminality singling out blacks.

The combination of gun ownership and black resentment sees a black open-carry activist at a protest rally organized by his brother, being arrested as a possible suspect in the shooting of thirteen police officers leaving five dead and seven injured. In the immediate aftermath of the killings how could it be known there was only one skilled and armed assailant? The blithe assumption of 'profiling' under these conditions is absurd; it represents instead a logical response given the conditions.

Mark Hughes, 25, fails to see his actions as provocative under very tense conditions of unspeakable violence that horrified black and white alike. His personal sense of entitlement leads him to consider legal action against the Dallas police who, under immediate threat, moved swiftly to disarm one other perceived threat, however temporarily. And the "open carry" permissiveness in law in the state proves its rank stupidity.

United Nations Human Rights Council

According to Human Rights Council resolution 5/1, Annex, the following general criteria will be of paramount importance while nominating, selecting and appointing mandate holders:
(a) expertise;
(b) experience in the field of the mandate;
(c) independence;
(d) impartiality;
(e) personal integrity;
and
(f) objectivity.
Due consideration should be given to gender balance and equitable geographic representation, as well as to an appropriate representation of different legal systems. Eligible candidates are highly qualified individuals who possess established competence, relevant expertise and extensive professional experience in the field of human rights.
Office of the High Commissioner, United Nations Human Rights

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon unveils the artistic new ceiling of a conference room of the United Nations Human Rights Council. UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferre.

In the current line-up of the UN Human Rights Council, among the 47 members appointed some stand out for their serious deficiencies in upholding human rights. There is Albania, Algeria, Bangladesh, China, Congo, Cuba, Indonesia, Qatar, Russian Federation Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, a who's who of human rights-violating nations, all of whom sit in judgement on other countries' records of human rights violations.

Qatar financially supports the terrorist group Hamas. Russia has added to its own violations by co-opting a significant geographic area of a neighbouring country into its federation. Saudi Arabia's role in financing Wahhabist fundamentalist madrassas throughout the world is known to have led to an upsurge in Islamist terrorism. In Congo, government militias rape vulnerable women at their leisure. China's occupation of Tibet is a travesty.

The United Nations and its member commissions have distinguished themselves by their veneer of concern for human rights while systematically supporting countries that commit wholesale human rights violations, but who are recognized as stalwart human rights supporting nations nonetheless making them fit to sit on the Human Rights Council as sterling examples whose judgement on the recognition of human rights exercised by other countries is to be respected.

So these violators, in collusion with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation unfailingly and repeatedly single out the State of Israel for condemnation as an exemplar of Human Rights violations, while overlooking those countries of the world, the non-aligned and Islamic nations in particular whose practise of human rights violations is notorious, but officially unrecognized. From 1955 to 2013 no fewer than 77 UNHCR resolutions targeted Israel.

In that period, only one resolution passed naming the Palestinian Authority: Resolution 1435: "...‘calls on’ the Palestinian Authority to meet its expressed commitment to ensure that those responsible for terrorist acts are brought to justice by it." Somewhat lopsided to say the very least. Here' serious lopsidedness; the Syrian regime which has been found to have been responsible for 330,000 Syrian deaths, the homelessness of 7 million of its people, has had six resolutions passed against it for its prosecution of the Syrian Civil War.

Now, the United Nations Human Rights Council has appointed Michael Lynk "special rapporteur on  human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967". It has chosen well in line with its other choices. And while the UNHRC declares that "impartiality" and "objectivity" are of "paramount importance" in the selection of mandate holders, it has selected an anything-but-neutral political activist in violation of its own core requirement for the office holder.

Professor Lynk is well known to have served as an advisory board member to Palestinian advocacy organizations, groups which specialize in slandering Israel as an "apartheid state". He has himself personally spoken of Israel engaged in "ethnic cleansing", has addressed "one-state" conferences premised on the position that the Jewish state be abolished and absorbed into a greater Palestinian state. He has been actively involved in advocacy for Palestinians and has been clearly anti-Israel.

Yet, despite the fact that the Government of Canada has appealed to the UNHRC to reconsider its decision to appoint this Canadian, given his background and orientation and clear biases, the UN body chose to proceed. In its most recent session the UNHRC passed five resolutions against Israel, none against Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Russia, Burundi and China.

Anti-Israel bias of a shameless and ferocious iniquity is alive and well at the United Nations. The world body has chosen to betray its founding principles. It is a discredited, useless institution, a victim of its own complicity in taking political sides when it was established as an apolitical voice in the world for reasonableness, rationality, peace among nations and its fervent commitment to uphold human rights for all of humankind.

The Triumph Factor

"What Donald Trump said yesterday disqualifies him from serving as president. And any Republican who's too fearful of the Republican base to admit [it] has no business serving as president either ... "
"It's morally reprehensible. It runs counter to the constitution. And it has  consequences for our national security."
Josh Earnest, President Obama's spokesman

"Paris is no longer the same city it was. They have sections in Paris that are radicalized where the police refuse to go there. They're petrified. The police refuse to go in there. We have places in London and other places that are so radicalized that the police are afraid for their own lives."
"[This is a president [Franklin D. Roosevelt] highly respected by all; he did the same thing. [The nation was at war in the 1940s, and now is] at war with radical Islam."
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump

Philly Daily News

"I commend Donald Trump for standing up and focusing America's attention on the need to secure our borders."
Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz

"I don't agree [wth Trump]. We need to aggressively take on radical Islamic terrorism, but not at the expense of our American values."
Reince Priebus, Republican national chairman

"This is not conservatism. What was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for and, more importantly, it's not what this country stands for."
"Some of our best and biggest allies in this struggle and fight against radical Islamic terror are Muslims, the vast, vast, vast majority of whom are people who believe in pluralism, freedom, democracy, individual rights."
Paul Ryan, 2012 Republican vice-presidential nominee

Not since Sarah Palin was selected as Senator John McCain's running mate for the Republican run at the presidency of the United States has the nation seen such raw, unadulterated buffoonery, an entitlement to right-wing declarations of national xenophobia and bigotry on steroids. Even her self-promoting pride as a backwoods-hunting-skidoo-driving yahoo comes a looong second to Trump's unapolagetic common-sense country-bumpkin persona.

His defense explanation of Muslim ghettoes that are no-go areas of grimy poverty and crime in France and Britain are also present in Germany and the Scandinavian countries with the non-assimilation of Muslim migrants into Western democracies, who agitate for state recognition of Sharia law, and view national customs and values with the contempt that Islamism seems to breed. But these are complex issues of two completely at-variant cultures clashing compounded by religion.

The Muslim populations that have assembled in North America are not a homogeneous cesspool of benighted jihad. For one thing there are the Ismaili and Ahmadiyya offshoots of mainstream Islam who are their persecuted minorities, both sects eschewing jihad in preference of living in harmony with larger non-Muslim populations. Not to mention the majority of Muslims representing the two major branches of Shia and Sunni strains who do see the utility of living in peace with their non-Muslim neighbours.

 Donald Trump, a man whose utterances are beyond offensive, is a crude charlatan posing as a politician, who portrays politicians as crude charlatans and himself as the antidote, a non-politician capable of leading the nation through common-sense decision-making to bring the country into a future of peace and prosperity, using his business acumen as an example of what he can achieve for a nation. Obama sold audacity during his campaign for the presidency, and Trump bought that audacity for himself.

Just as he is buying the presidential campaign, taking pride in being beholden to no one to fund his electoral chances. The big question for the American body politic is the electorate's choice and the demonstrated fact that this man whose revels in celebrity and entertainment is hugely popular with a base base. What to do about him, the uncouth racist, money-and-mouth celebrity is the question that looms large.

Regardless of his demeaning-to-others utterances, his declarations of capability and his offers of self as solace and solution to all the country's problems, from an aspiring dilettante whose ego is larger than his wealth, the faith of his followers stream after him. This is an American-made problem, and to date the current crop of supplicants-to-contention are not distinguishing themselves with much more cerebral functioning and integrity than Trump has.