What Has Changed Since September 11, 2001? W2 Media Cafe and Siraat invite you to a public forum on Monday, September 10, 2012, looking at Canada’s racist legacy, as we mark 11 years after the events of September 11, 2001. 7pm at 111 West Hastings Street, Vancouver. Invited Panellists: Kat
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Montreal Simon: Vic Toews and my Manitoba Nightmare
Oh. My. Zombie. What a horrible nightmare. I'm pedaling furiously across Manitoba, desperately looking for a cheap motel. Because I've been warned not to be out on the road after dark. Especially when there's a full moon eh? And then suddenly I'm stopped by a cop and charged with SPEEDING
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay Said Canada Should Bring Omar Khadr Home
Surely this has got to be the ultimate Tale of Two Nazanins. Better still, Of Denial And The Tale of Two Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKays. The brand new wife of Conservative Defence Minister Peter MacKay is fuming. She accuses a journalist baiting her to criticize the Harper Government on the Omar
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Omar Khadr and the Invisible Kid
I love this UNICEF message. It's one of the best messages against bullying and violence against children I have ever seen. But for some reason it also makes me think of our invisible kid, Omar Khadr. And makes me wonder who will protect him from the depravity of Vic Toews? Read more
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Why Omar Khadr’s psychology does not matter
This post is a quick update to my previous post ‘Why Omar Khadr still matters‘ in response to a CBC article that contrasts the views of two psychologists who studied Khadr. As interesting as the article may be, everything I wrote previously about whether Canada should repatriate Khadr, whether his
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Vaughn Palmer discusses the unfortunate gap between the outrages that may lead to a government being pushed out of power, and a new government’s ability to actually reverse what’s been done. Which, a propos of nothing, makes it rather important to push
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Two Letters About Omar Khadr
Yesterday I wrote a post on the contempt for the rule of law evident in the Harper regime’s refusal to thus far repatriate Omar Khadr from Guantanimo. Following are two thoughtful letters on the topic from today’s Star I am taking the liberty of reproducing: I am disgusted at the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Contempt For Law Invites Contempt Of Harper Government
Despite its well-oiled propaganda machine spewing out rhetoric defending its ‘law-and-order-agenda’, the Harper regime is so awash in its contempt for the actual rule of law and its moral underpinnings as to fill any right-thinking person with nausea. While countless instances of this contempt abound, probably one of the most
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: No shock here on the Conservative foot-dragging on Omar Khadr
A column in the Star today about how the Canadian government has been doing nothing to live up to its agreement it made with the US and Omar Khadr’s lawyers to bring Khadr home and out of the Guantanamo gulag: Various United States officials have complained that Canada’s insolence is
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Why Omar Khadr still matters
A decade after a wounded Omar Khadr, a then fifteen year old Canadian citizen, decided to lob a fatal grenade in the middle of a firefight in Afghanistan, Ottawa is still dragging its feet on finally repatriating Khadr back to Canada from Guantanamo Bay where he is currently detained. Khadr’s
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Omar Khadr And The Harperites
Nothing encapsulates what the Harper government is all about more than its refusal to allow Omar Khadr back into Canada. Certainly the government’s reaction puzzles the Americans.The Canadian Press reported last week that: One of Khadr’s U.S. lawyers said last month he has been told American officials can’t understand Canada’s
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Realities Of The Child Soldier
I suppose I might feel differently about Omar Khadr if I hadn’t read a particular book, A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah. It provided indelible insights into both the realities of the child soldier’s world and the possibilities of redemption and rehabilitation. It should be read by everyone who
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Omar Khadr and the Gitmo Cons
It's a Canadian horror story. A young boy is taken from his Toronto home by his Jihadi father, to a place he never should have been. He is riddled with shrapnel, shot twice in the back. The bullets exploding out of his chest and exposing his beating heart. He is
Continue readingHomegrown Terrorism
Poster campaign over Khadr’s possible return | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun. There is nothing about this article that doesn’t repulse me. Look at the poster: 9/11? Really? REALLY? No matter what Khadr did or didn’t do, no matter that he isn’t even in the country and
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: Black is the new Red: Why Stephen & Jason love Conrad more than they love Canadians
Powerful symbolism, no matter how you look at it: Lord and Lady Black. Below: Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Let’s be honest with ourselves, Canadians. Did any of us ever truly doubt – even for an instant – that the “Conservative” government of Stephen Harper would not welcome Conrad Black back
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: About Conrad Black’s return: surely Canadians deserve honest answers
Lord Black gesticulates at Communications Energy and Paperworkers Local 115A President Andy Marshall in 1999. Below: Omar Khadr, Jason Kenney, George Galloway, Farouk Adatia. Let’s mark this international day of the worker by having a grown-up discussion about the readmission to Canada of Conrad Black, the former Canadian citizen and
Continue readingA. Picazo: Child Soldiers: The Other Taliban and Al-Qaeda Militants
“A poignant reality of contemporary conflicts is that increasingly children are being used as cheap and readily available weapons of war. From Colombia to Sri Lanka, from Sierra Leone to Uganda, thousands of children have been used in armed conflict situations. In Afghanistan, our forces are seeing the increasing use
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