Omar Khadr: A Child Soldier Comes Home

It has been a seemingly endless nightmare, a horror story not only for Omar Khadr, but also for the country that let him down so shamefully.

But at least tonight he is finally home.

The Day Stephen Harper Got Punked

Golly. I see Stephen Harper FINALLY got a chance to show why some weird religious organization, named him the Statesman of the Year.

No. Not at this meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, the creator of the "Bibi Bomb" as inspired by the Road Runner.

Because that was just man love.

Benny and Steve Go To New York

I didn't think it was possible for anything to be as scary and as ridiculous as the sight of Benjamin Netanyahu at the U.N. today.

Looking like a maniac, warning that the whole world was in danger unless Iran's nuclear program was stopped. 

“At stake is the future of the world,” Netanyahu said. “Nothing could imperil our future more than an Iran armed with nuclear weapons.”

While drawing a red line on a Road Runner bomb. 

Rona Ambrose and the Wacky Woody Show

About five years ago I made this button of Rona Ambrose. So I'm glad to see that my confidence in her was fully justified.

Canada’s minister for the status of women joined nine other Conservative cabinet ministers and dozens of backbenchers in voting in favour of a motion to study the rights of the fetus, even as the Prime Minister’s Office suggested it is time to move on.

Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth’s motion to have a committee look at when human life begins was defeated 203-91 in a vote on Wednesday night.

So I can wear it again.

Margaret Wente and the Sorry Song

I have to admit that I am enjoying every twist and turn in the Margaret Wente plagiarism scandal.

Not because I really care whether she ripped off the words of others eh? 

For that snooty right-wing hack was NEVER original. 

And in her hands even the works of Shakespeare would read like monkey scribblings.

But because she has the colossal gall to portray herself as a victim. 

The Slow Degradation of Stephen Harper

I think this cartoon by the Star's Theo Moudakis neatly sums up what Stephen Harper's Con regime is doing to our image abroad.

Making us look small, cheap, shabby.  And like Britain's royal loyal corgis.    

For the Cons can try to downplay the embassy move, call it no big deal, just a way to save money. But as I explained the other night, it's actually a huge deal. For the Cons in Britain.

Stephen Harper and the Great Betrayal

Well I suppose it was inevitable eh?

First Stephen Harper started clinging to the Queen like a fridge magnet. And going gaga over everything Royal. 

Then he spent gazillions to celebrate a war 200 years ago that helped keep Canada British.

And now we're a colony again.

Stephen Harper and the Invisible Tax

The more I think about it, the more bizarre and outrageous it seems.

Stephen Harper going after Tom Mulcair, accusing him of promoting an invisible carbon tax. 

Like Clint Eastwood went after an invisible Obama in the empty chair.

For let's face it, this is MADNESS.

Stephen Harper and the Dead Parrot

When I first started portraying Stephen Harper and his Con Regime as a sinister freak show, I took a bit of heat even from some of my friends.

The MSM was busy polishing Harper's ass, and calling him a political genius, so some of them thought I was exaggerating. Or said that people wouldn't take me seriously.  

And sure enough some snooty progressives were appalled. One well-known blogger even accused me of suffering from what she called Harper Derangement Syndrome.

Saving Our Democracy: When the People Awaken

As Stephen Harper drags our parliament into the pit of democratic depravity, by accusing the NDP of supporting an imaginary carbon tax only he can see.

Repeating a Big Lie over and over again like a shameless con man, or a desperate maniac. Going after Tom Mulcair, as one pundit put it, with a zeal bordering on that of a religious fanatic.

As we stare in horror at what Great Economist Benny Cuckoo Leader is doing to our Parliament, the Star's Bob Hepburn asks the burning question. Can we save our democracy?   

Tubby Van Loan and the Mighty Mulcair

If anybody still thinks that the Con regime is not out of control, the sight of Peter Van Loan in Question Period today should have been enough to cure that delusion.

For there was Tubby, as his friends call him, filling in for Stephen Harper, clutching a piece of paper with his scripted lines marked with a yellow highlighter.

Sweating like a pig, bellowing like a bull, and turning farce into satire.

Yunel Escobar and the Bigot Moment

With all the scary things happening in the world today, from America to China. And our foul Con regime leading us to disaster. 

Just about the last thing I felt like writing about today was Yunel Escobar's bigot moment.

Because why should I care what a second-rate baseball player, on a losing team, thinks about ANYTHING?

But since I do speak Spanish, and I do know and love Cuba, I know this is bullshit:

Stephen Harper and the Big Lie

Well there they were again. The same tired old Con gang and their weird and whacked out leader.

Blowing smoke out of every orifice, trying to smear their opponents.

Lying like thieves.

There’s only one problem with this alarmist scenario, which has been dutifully parroted by Conservative robomaulers across the country. It’s utter bovine-enhanced fertilizer. In other words, B.S.

Rob Ford: The Beast and the Animals

I try to ignore him. I look away from his ghastly image. I close my ears every time he opens his monstrous pie hole. 

I try to delude myself into thinking that I can't possibly be living in Stephen Harper's Canada AND Rob Ford's Toronto at the same time. 

I tell tourists I'm from Montreal, and like them I'm just visiting.

But it's no good eh? I just can't ignore an animal show like this one. 

Crazy Religion and the Hatred that Kills

What with Christian extremists spreading hatred, and Muslim extremists on a rampage.

I was horrified to see that a Hindu extremist was trying to stir up trouble in Toronto.

And delighted to see that his plan to insult Muslims by parading dogs outside a mosque failed miserably.

Netanyahu, Harper, and the War on Obama

The other night I accused Stephen Harper of timing his decision to sever ties with Iran in order to ratchet up tensions, just before Benjamin Netanyahu went ballistic.

Why is he doing this? My guess is that he's saying what he's saying because he knows he can't attack, especially before the U.S. election, barring a yellow light from Obama, which he's not getting. Sheer frustration at what he sees as Obama's obtuseness is causing these undiplomatic outbursts.

By trying to create the sense that the crisis was reaching a critical point, that Israel could strike at any time, which could only put more pressure on Obama to surrender to Netanyahu's demands for a so-called red line. And give Mitt Romney fodder to claim that even Canada was doing more than Obama to contain the Iranian Threat.

The Apocalypse and the Monarch Tree

So I'm sitting on a bench down by the swan pond this evening, staring at the signs of The Apocalypse.

Two little trees that have surrendered to the Canadian winter. Already.

(click pic to enlarge)

And I'm screaming at them, in my mind. How could you do this to me? How could you leave so soon?

And wondering is it just me, or is the whole world going crazy?

Stephen Harper and the Red Line

When it finally hit me why Stephen Harper suddenly cut ties with Iran, I felt slightly dizzy. 

So great was my horror.

For it seems obvious to me that  it had little or nothing to do with security, and everything to do with an orchestrated campaign by Benjamin Netanyahu to try to blackmail Obama when he is most vulnerable.

And force him to set a so-called "red line" for joining the Israelis in an attack on Iran.

The Long-Gun Registry Lives !!!!!

At least in Québec.

The federal government’s plan to destroy all data from its long-gun registry is unconstitutional, a judge has ruled, giving Ottawa 30 days to hand to Quebec records collected from the province’s gun owners.

“Quebec didn’t embark in the project of setting up a registry knowing that it would later be deprived of the fruit of its co-operation,” the judge wrote in a 42-page decision.

Glory, glory, hallelujah.

The Occupy Movement and the Quebec Students

It's been almost a year since the Occupy Wall Street movement was born, and in this very gloomy article Gerald Caplan wonders where it went.

It flashed through our lives like a comet in the sky, illuminating the most insidious development of our time. Then just as suddenly it flamed out and died. Or at least disappeared. Having made headlines around the world, having made the phenomenon of unprecedented inequality a major issue, having popularized the concept of the 1 per cent versus the 99 per cent – after all these triumphs, the Occupy Movement is playing no perceptible role in any of the big events that now affect our lives.

Benny and Steve and the War with Iran

As you know I'm a real romantic eh? And I'm usually a sucker for movies about two men in love. Especially if they're R-rated.

But I think it's safe to say that with the Middle East on the brink of a war that could kill millions of people, the last thing I needed to see was Stephen Harper on his knees blowing  Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Confessions of a Quebec Anglophone

The other night I wrote about how shocked I was by the senseless act of cowardly violence that stole the life of poor Denis Blanchette.

And how stunned I was to see his deranged killer scream "The English are rising!!!"  As if he was acting in our name, as if we the Anglos of Quebec shared his crazy views and his blind hatred.

Steve Harper and the Road to Ruin

Oh no. How embarrassing. That old Con man Steve Harper is at it again.

He's been spotted preparing to leave for the APEC summit, disguised as an economist, and already he's lecturing the Americans on how to run their economy.

Concerns about a so-called "fiscal cliff" in the United States are warranted but they should not overshadow the need for America to "get a grip" on its longer-term fiscal situation, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Thursday.

Because you know, he's an economic genius eh?

And we're number ONE !!!! FOURTEEN !!! 

The Quebec Shooting and the Hatred that Kills

For a Montrealer like me, who lives and plays happily in both solitudes, and is always trying to bring Quebecers and Canadians together, it was the ultimate nightmare.

An old Anglo, in a balaclava .... and a bathrobe ... screaming "The English are rising up!!! There's going to be fucking payback !!!"

After killing a poor stage hand, throwing a molotov cocktail at the back entrance, and trying to shoot-up the PQ victory party.

For no sane reason.  

The Quebec Election and the Angry Canadians

On a sunny afternoon, in my favourite Montreal neighbourhood, both the Quebec election and the hysterical reaction in English Canada, seemed very far away.

Which was a good thing eh?

Because following the election campaign from Toronto and a beach in Maine, has been very exhausting. And the reaction in English Canada has been entirely predictable and totally depressing.