When it Comes to Gay Marriage...

Anything the Australians can do...



We can do...um...differently...



But then we got gay marriage and they don't.. 

The Burning Planet and the Icy Hand of the Cons

They are planning to torch the planet. By sticking another knife into the bleeding side of the Kyoto Accord.

For the greater glory of Big Oil.

They are planning to turn us into a prison state.

To appease the old white people in their rabid base, who believe in moral certainty, love punishment for its own sake. And would strangle the young in their cradle. Or have them arrested for daring to complain. 

A Hollow Lament for Occupy Canada

I see that Kalle Lasn, one of the Canadian instigators of the Occupy Wall Street movement, laments the way things turned out in Canada.

While protesters from Halifax to Vancouver emulated their global counterparts by pitching tents in public spaces and brainstorming ways to challenge the status quo, Lasn said the efforts he witnessed lacked some of the passion that characterized rallies in the United States.

I don't question Lasn's good intentions, but it all sounds a bit hollow. Firstly, since he only visited the campsite in Vancouver his views of the Canadian movement are obviously extremely limited. Secondly, since he came up with the idea of occupying campsites, and providing free food and shelter, in cities full of homeless people, street kids, drug abusers, and the mentally ill, like Vancouver, he should take some blame for what happened. 

Welcome to the Con Horror Show

Oh no. I don't want to frighten you eh? But has anybody noticed that the Con regime is turning into a real horror show?

Not only have they started calling anybody who disagrees with them a traitor.

But there was the rabid wingnut Rob Anders the other day, claiming that the only reason he nodded off in Parliament was because he was hit by a monster truck.  

Fox News and the Pepper Spray Turkey

It was an image that shocked the world. An image that should shock everybody. Right?

But not Bill O'Reilly and the Fox News bimbo Megyn Kelly, who shrugged it off as just a "food product."

"I agree [the tape] looks bad," Kelly says. It's just that the protesters were sitting in a place where they weren't allowed to sit, so it's kind of their own fault! And in any event what right do we have to judge a cop for spraying a simple food product on the faces of a bunch of liberal college kids doing something criminal? You know? Maybe he was just trying to feed them? 

Lady Gaga's Message to a Canadian School

In a country where bullying is an epidemic, and almost nothing is being done to stop it, isn't it great to know that at least Lady Gaga cares.

Too bad she couldn't send a message to Jamie Hubley and his school in Ottawa.

Before he committed suicide. 

The Occupy Movement and the Nature of the Beast

Twenty four hours after this little campsite was demolished, I see that Margaret Wente couldn't restrain herself from going down to St James Park, squatting on all fours, and delivering this dreary dump.

Despite the current circumstances, every single protester in North America is pretty well guaranteed a comfortable middle-class existence – so long as he or she can manage to finish school, show up for work and avoid excessive substance abuse – in a functioning democracy with the rule of law.

Right. Just remember which end of her it came from eh?

But of course she wasn't the only one. Who can forget the Progressive Bloggers who called the occupiers "degenerates" and "rabid animals?" Or all those other angry old people who screamed that the baby movement should be strangled in its cradle.

Occupy Toronto:The End of the Beginning

(click pics to enlarge)

By the time I got to the Occupy Toronto campsite this afternoon it was mostly gone. 

The library, where some guy in a Clockwork Orange bowler hat had barricaded himself, was being dismantled.

Some of the neighbours were taking back "their" park.

So be careful where you step from now on eh?

But the good news is it ended peacefully. 

Occupy Toronto and the Old Rebel

I visited the Occupy Toronto campsite on my way back from work today, and it was a sad and desolate sight. Exhausted street kids tearing down their tents, as an icy wind blew the dead leaves around them.

The demolished kitchen that once fed hundreds of people a day, now only feeding the sparrows.

The Next Time a Pig Screams...

You can tell him this:

Wrong. You are the 0.01 % and you're a greedy PIG...

Occupy Canada and the Silence of the Lambs

I'm going to miss the Occupy Toronto campsite, this colourful little progressive utopia in the heart of a cold grey city. For by tomorrow night it will almost surely be destroyed.

I'm going to miss the endless discussions about how to change the world and make it a better place. I'm going to miss the amazing collection of gentle idealists and activists who kept it running, so long and so peacefully.

I'm going to miss the poor lost kids.

Occupy Canada: Why You Can't Evict a Movement

As I was saying last night, they can arrest us. 

They can tear down our humble campsites.

They can insult us.

They can beat us.

They can pepper spray peaceful protesters...



The pig bastards.

Why the Occupy Movement Will Survive

It's going to be a cold night at the Occupy Toronto campsite, as the clock on the church that has refused the occupiers sanctuary, counts down the hours before they are evicted. 

Because you don't have to ask yourself what would Jesus do eh? Or be a weatherman, to know that a cold wind is blowing.

Not only is the hanging judge in fine fettle, the right-wing rabble is in a frigging frenzy, some neighbours are outraged their dogs don't have enough room in the park to shit, and some old lefties are comparing the Occupy movement to Jonestown. 

Bully Awareness Week and the Dead Kids

It's Bully Awareness Week, and for kids in Canada it couldn't have come at a better time. After a horrifying streak of bullying related suicides.

Mitchell Wilson, bullied to death because he had muscular dystrophy.

The bullying that her grandson suffered at his school, Westcreek Public School in Pickering, led the boy to lose his will to live, his grandmother said...“He said to me, ‘Mimi, my biggest issue is that I can’t protect myself, and if a man cannot protect himself, then he is not a man,’” recalled Ms. Wilson.

“At the cottage in July, he said, ‘If I have to go back to that school, I’ll kill myself.’”

The Harper Cons and the Great Darkness

We knew that if he ever got his precious majority the lights would be going out all over Canada. But who could have known that the Great Darkness would arrive so soon?

They are turning our Parliament into a Con cabaret, braying like donkeys, stifling debate, and using closure to ram through one wretched bill after the other. Like their grotesque American-style Law and Order Bill. Tough on crime. Tough on sanity. Tough on Democracy.

The Quebec government derided the Harper Conservatives for fast-tracking crime legislation Thursday that is bitterly opposed by several provinces as costly and counter-productive. "This isn't a tough-on-crime measure we're seeing today — it's a tough-on-democracy measure," Fournier told reporters.

They are trying to suck the marrow out of the CBC, and dismember the union movement, to appease their rabid tea bagger base. 

The Occupy Movement:When Repression Backfires

All over North America the assault on the Occupy campsites continues. From New York City, to Regina, to Vancouver.

And in Toronto the Con tool Tasha Kheiriddin, can barely contain herself.

The Occupy movement has had two months to develop a coherent message, engage broad public sympathy, or begin its transition to a political movement. It has done none of the above, remaining instead an incoherent voice grating on the nerves of the very 99% it claims to represent. It targets big business, but hurts small business; it claims a right to public spaces, but sees fit to trash them; it claims to want to influence politics, but has not morphed into the “Tea Party of the left” many expected it to become. Sorry, Occupiers, but the mayors are right. It is time to pack up the tents.

Too stupid to realize that by demolishing the camps the corporate porkers are only doing us a favour. 

The Occupy Movement and The Revolution

This sign in the Occupy Toronto campsite still stands defiantly. But of course the occupiers will be moved eventually. Because the power has the police. Just not tonight.

Occupy Toronto protesters will not be evicted tonight following a last-minute court injunction against the city’s plans to forcibly remove them...Full arguments for and against eviction will be heard Friday, with a decision delivered on Saturday.

Which is great eh? Because I can't make it down to the camp tonight, but I sure will be there on Saturday. And so will thousands of others.

In the meantime, everyone should know this: the reason The Power, and the Pig Mayor, want to evict Occupy Toronto has nothing to do with claims that it is damaging businesses in the area, or that the camp is dirty, or that the city can't winterize the sprinkler system, or that nearby residents can't use the park, or walk their dogs in it.

The Occupy Movement and the Coal Mine Canaries

By the time I made it down to the Occupy Toronto campsite this weekend it was getting dark. There seemed to be more tents than ever, but although they were celebrating their one-month anniversary, the mood was definitely subdued.

Maybe it's because they can see the writing on the wall.  

Maybe it's because many of the 500 or so occupiers are poorer and more desperate than the ones at the beginning.

You can see it in the hungry faces of the people getting something to eat at the food tent...

Stephen Harper and the Pipeline Debacle

Oh no. How embarrassing. I see Stephen Harper was doing the hula hula in Hawaii today, trying to get Obama to change his mind about the Keystone XL pipeline. Because he said it was a "no brainer" so now he looks like an IDIOT.

And so does little Jimbo Flaherty. 

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Friday that the delay may kill project and could add momentum to efforts to open up the Asian market for Canadian oil.

“It may mean that we may have to move quickly to ensure that we can export our oil to Asia through British Columbia,” Flaherty told Bloomberg.

Oh yeah. I'm sure that will work. BC would LOVE to have hundreds of Exxon tankers bobbing off its fragile coastline. And with all those native treaties...and the Rockies... to negotiate, how long does he think that might take before the window closes?

Gawd. Somebody find a tiny pipeline so we can give little Jimbo an oily enema.

Why Do So Many Canadians Hate the Occupiers?

I haven't been able to visit the Occupy Toronto campsite in the last two days. But I have spent quite a bit of time wondering why so many Canadians seem to hate the occupiers so much? And I mean HATE.

Because this isn't just manufactured bile, this is visceral.

A leaderless movement that initially attracted a disparate collection of well-meaning activists along with just plain folk was ultimately hijacked by a hoi polloi with questionable ambitions.

The rabble that rose each morning from their tents headed off to attend meetings intended to build the infrastructure of some kind of fairy-tale parallel society. Before our eyes, an anarchist collective was drafting a set of demands; the terms, apparently, of any kind of surrender.

Now the Occupy movement is dying. And not a lot of people seem to care

Remembrance Day 2011

I belong to a family, and a clan, with a 300-year military tradition. I have attended more Remembrance Day ceremonies than I can count. And hated them all.

I shudder at the sounds of the guns. But the children's choir always makes me weep. As it did again today.

I share my life with a former soldier. When I think what might have happened to him, it stops my heart like a bullet.

I never forget my dead friend, or the wounded ones from the small town where I was born. Or my grandfathers who fought the Nazi bastards so bravely. But taught me that war is murder.

The Occupy Movement and Progressive Bloggers

I see that London, Ontario, has become the first Canadian city to evict its Occupy protesters.

And that others are gearing up to do the same thing.

As news spread of what happened in London, Toronto's mayor said it was time Occupy protesters in his city left their encampment in a downtown park.

And although I'm disappointed, I'm not surprised. Canada is an aging, conservative country, where an authoritarian regime is making a mockery out of our Parliamentary democracy. And most people couldn't give a damn. 

Nor am I surprised that our Con media has been attacking the peaceful Occupy movement like a pack of rabid hyenas, to stroke their corporate masters.

But what does surprise and shock me is the way some Progressive Bloggers have been attacking the protesters. Calling them degenerates.

Jimbo Flaherty's Ridiculous Economic Update

As usual he didn't see it coming. He doesn't know what he's doing. But goodness knows little Jimbo Flaherty is determined to try to fool us into thinking he's flexible.

"We will not be bound by ideology when it comes to making decisions to keep our economy strong and protect Canadians, their financial security and their jobs," Flaherty said in a speech to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce as he delivered the economic update.

"We have responded to critical situations with flexibility and pragmatism, and we will continue to do so as situations dictate."

But only as flexible as a Con ideologue can be eh?

Edging Closer to a Nuclear Nightmare

When I think of a nuclear nightmare I think of the ghost towns of Chernobyl. 

Twenty-five years after the reactor exploded...

I think of the deformed children, the cancers, and the poisoned earth.

Or I think about the continuing horror of Fukushima.

Where the hell fires still burn.

But now I see that I also have to worry about a new report. 

The Occupy Movement and the Marginalized

I see the Mayor of Vancouver is using a tragic drug overdose to justify evicting the city's Occupy protesters.

"I have directed the city manager to expedite the appropriate steps to end the encampment as soon as possible with a safe resolution being absolutely critical to that," Mayor Gregor Robertson said Saturday night.

Even though everyone knows that a similar death could happen anywhere in Vancouver. In any other park, in a cheap hotel, in a squalid alley. Because it happens ALL the time.

And everyone knows that excuses are a dime a dozen, when every Mayor has a different reason, but the same goal : It's time to clear those "undesirables" out of OUR public spaces, and if the Canadian winter won't do it, we will

Margaret Wente and the Occupy Movement

Oh my Con Majesty. I see that Margaret Wente is channelling her inner Marie Antoinette again, and declaring that the members of the Occupy movement shouldn't blame the rich. They should blame themselves.

Ms. O’Gorman is in a fix. But I can’t help wondering whether she, and not the greedy Wall Street bankers, is the author of her own misfortune. Just what kind of jobs did she imagine are on offer for freshly minted sociology graduates? Did she bother to ask? Did it occur to her that it might be a good idea to figure out how to support her children before she had them?

But then she would. 

Herman Cain and the Koch Brothers

Holy Moley.  It's a miracle. Not only is Herman Cain a pizza Godfather, an accused sexual harasser, an economic buffoon, a homophobe, and a teabagger.

He's also the third brother, of another mother, of the infamous Koch brothers. 

Stephen Harper's Made in Canada Recession

Holy Acropolis Now. As if what was happening at the G20 summit wasn't enough of a nightmare of naked panic, piggy squeals, and vomit. 

As if these figures weren't frightening enough.

Canada’s jobs market suffered its biggest loss in 2 ½ years last month, driving the unemployment rate up two notches to 7.3 per cent as the economy shed a massive 54,000 jobs overall, most of them in manufacturing and construction.

There was Stephen Harper today blaming it all on Europe.

Don Cherry and the Order of the Donut

Well I see the Royal Military College has decided to give Don Cherry an honorary degree.

And is sticking to it's guns blunderbusses despite what this professor said:

"On many occasions he publicly expressed his contempt for many groups of the Canadian population, notably for the French-speaking Canadians, for the (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) community and for the immigrants," said Lord's letter to the Kingston Whig-Standard newspaper.

"What message will RMC send, in celebrating Don Cherry, to the students coming from these groups? And what will the Canadian people remember from RMC, as a serious and prestigious institution?"

When Babies Help Fight Bullying

As you know,  I don't think we're doing enough to fight bullying in Canada. Even though it's terrorizing children, and corrupting our culture, from sports to politics.

And I wish there were more anti-bullying programs in our schools, and ads on TV, like there are in some countries in Europe.

So you can imagine how happy I was to see that a wonderful Canadian program is being introduced into schools.

In Scotland.

Quebec City Moves to Evict its Occupiers

It looks as if the first Canadian occupiers to be evicted are going to be the occupiers of Quebec City.

Occupy protesters in Quebec City are facing imminent eviction after the mayor, citing safety concerns, said the area had to be cleared out. Mayor Régis Labeaume told the media Thursday morning the protesters would need to leave their site at Place de l'Université-du-Québec by the end of the day.

And all because of this guy...

The Shit Kebab and the Democratic Deficit

Uh oh. I see that Eurozone leaders don't like George Papandreou's idea for a shit kebab  referendum.

The leaders of Germany and France told Greece on Wednesday it would not receive another cent in European aid until it decides whether it wants to stay in the euro zone.

And that he has been spanked by the Iron Frau Angela Merkel.

Are Israel and the U.S. About to Attack Iran?

The Guardian seems to think so.

The Ministry of Defence believes the US may decide to fast-forward plans for targeted missile strikes at some key Iranian facilities. British officials say that if Washington presses ahead it will seek, and receive, UK military help for any mission, despite some deep reservations within the coalition government.

And in Israel Benjamin Netanyahu is apparently seeking cabinet approval for a strike.

And testing a nuclear missile.

Israel test-fired a ballistic missile from a military base in central Israel on Wednesday, Israel Radio said.

The report said the launch was carried out from the Palmachim facility. It quoted a Defence Ministry statement as saying the launch was aimed at testing the missile's propulsion system. Israel has Jericho missiles widely believed to be capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Can you imagine what might happen with the world teetering on the edge of a new and brutal recession? Especially since the Iranians would no doubt attack the Saudi oil fields. Which would require further military action, and would almost certainly unleash a new wave of terrorism on countries supporting the attack on its nuclear facilities.

How do you think other nuclear powers like China and Russia that support Iran might react?

And do you think Stephen Harper would keep Canada on the sidelines, when his government is practically a tool of the Netanyahu settler regime?

Oh wait I think I can hear him now....



You know I think it's about time that Occupy Wall Street (OWS) changed it's name to (OSW) or Operation Save the World.

Because forget that little economic crisis, I think I can hear the horsemen of the Apocalypse.

And time is running out...  

The Slow Death of the Gun Registry

I see that the bill to kill the long-gun registry has passed second reading in the House of Commons. And what an ugly sight it was. The Cons on their feet yelling "Yippee" and "Yahoo" like a bunch of drunken rednecks.

I've already written a post about my feelings on this issue. So I'll leave it up to Sabina and this righteous cowboy to say what needs to be said.

And all I'll add is this:

(1) I will never apologize for wanting a kinder, gentler world with less guns and less violence. For that's what being a progressive means to me, and so does being a Canadian. 

(2) I will never forgive the Cons for endangering the lives of police officers, paramedics and other first responders. Some of whom are my friends. By depriving them of a useful tool to take guns out of the hands of criminals, the mentally ill, and men who kill women.

(3) I will work tirelessly to unite the left, and join the struggle to redistribute seats in this country, so a small group of rural gun nutz can't tell most Canadians who live in cities how to live their lives. Just because they're too dumb, too greedy, or too paranoid to put the good of society before their selfish interests. 

(4) Once again I am proud to come from Quebec the last bastion of Canadian values.

Quebec has opened up a second front in the fight against Ottawa’s law-and-order agenda, refusing to pay for higher prison costs flowing from a federal omnibus anti-crime bill and blasting the legislation as counter-productive.

The Quebec government is also in a dispute with Ottawa over its decision to kill the long-gun registry, suggesting it will go to court to get the information it contains on gun ownership in the province and set up its own database.

And if that great people ever decide they must leave Canada to preserve those values, I will gladly go with them. For I do not consent to live in a country with the values of rural Alberta. Or Alabama.

And finally, as I said before, I will never forget the murdered women of the École Polytechnique, whose precious legacy was the gun registry. That legacy has been trampled upon by the Cons, who believe that a woman's place is in the kitchen, or on her knees with her mouth open.

It has been betrayed by the indifference of progressives, too old or too tired to fight the good fight. Or remember what the struggle for women's rights is all about.

But I won't forget those murdered women, or all the others killed by violent men with guns.  We will fight those Amerikan Cons forever.

And we will remember...



Oh yeah.... one more thing. Gun nutz please don't bother sending me any comments, for I will delete them upon arrival. Save your spit to oil your rifles.

You didn't really think you could threaten the lives of others, destroy a data base, and get away with it did you?

Enjoy your smelly little victory you ghastly Con teabaggers, for it will not last long... 

Con Halloween and the Economic Horror Show

Although it's a gay national holiday, I decided not to celebrate Halloween this year.

Because let's face it eh? Who needs scary when we got Harper? 

And besides with Lezra Levant running around like the crazy lady guy from Psycho...

I decided it was too dangerous to go out. I mean with all those other drag queens running hobbling staggering around, how was I supposed to tell one from the other? 

You know some people say Lezra is losing it, but I think he's just crying out for help. And who can blame him?

But of course this is the REALLY scary part. 

Stocks were hit hard on Monday after Italian bond yields rose, a U.S. financial firm sought bankruptcy protection and Greece called for a referendum on last week’s European debt deal, stirring up concerns about the sovereign-debt crisis.

The economy is threatening to go south again, but Harper is still insisting he's an economist, and little Jimbo Flaherty is still determined to slash spending and plunge Canada into a recession.

Because, as usual, he didn't see it coming, he doesn't know what he's doing.

“I think it’s great for Flaherty to go to Europe and tell everyone what to do — but I hope someone in our government is thinking about what we do when the s--t hits the fan here, which it will,” said the former head of a major Crown corporation.

And he can't decide whether to be an idiot gnome or an evil goblin...

Oh boy. Can you imagine the horror? Can you hear the screams in the night? Where did my pension go????? Why is the CBC off the air????? Who murdered Mrs Medicare????? !!!!!!

Can you imagine the social unrest?

The International Labour Organisation has warned that a jobs crisis caused by the slowdown in the global economy threatens a wave of widespread social unrest engulfing both rich and poor countries.

Official figures released today showed that unemployment in the 17-nation eurozone had climbed to a 15-year-high of 10.2%. Young people are being hardest hit by the lack of jobs, with youth unemployment at 29% in Italy, 43% in Greece and 48% in Spain.

And youth unemployment in Canada is already TWICE the national average. So the Occupy Canada movement will just get bigger and bigger eh?

But of course that's why the Cons are building all those fancy new prisons.

Happy Hell-o-ween everybody.

Welcome to my recurring nightmare...

Herman Cain: Now he's a Singer !!!

Holy pepperoni. I see Herman Cain, the former CEO of Godfather Pizza,  is having a really bad week in his campaign for the White House.

First he got a ringing endorsement from Conrad Black. All the way from the Big House.

As I suggested last week here, there is a chance of excitement. Herman Cain is a self-made African-American, well-educated, keyed to opportunity and not victimhood, a successful fast-food executive and management buy-out financier, and former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

After such a sequence of GOP fade-outs, it would be premature to conclude that the man the office seeks has been found, but a counter-chippy African-American with his background could be a dynamite candidate and an effective president (and could split the African-American vote with the incumbent).

Then he was accused of sexual harassment.

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain on Monday said he was "falsely accused" of sexual harassment during the 1990s but adamantly denied any inappropriate behaviour.

But his acknowledgment came at the end of a rare day of campaigning in Washington in which he offered several conflicting accounts of the allegations in a Politico report, even as he emphatically denied that he had ever sexually harassed anyone in his life.

Now he's singing for his supper...



And heading for the dog house.

Golly. What a pleasant surprise. I thought I was going to HATE the Republican Presidential race eh?

But I'm really LOVING it....