Yes, it's true. After living high off the hog for about ten months after he was defeated and humiliated, the mad emperor has finally left the building. Stephen Harper has finally resigned. Stephen Harper is stepping down from Parliament and going into business, hoping that his credentials as a former G7 leader will lead to a successful consulting career on the international stage. Now please stand by for a message from Great Fallen Leader.
It's Remembrance Day 2015, and this year it will be for me like no other I have ever known. A day of sadness and celebration. A day to mourn all those who sacrificed their lives for this country. And a day to give thanks that this other tragedy, this other gaping wound of war, is finally going to be recognized.
Of all the Canadians Stephen Harper has muzzled during his reign of terror nobody was muzzled more than Omar Khadr. For years Harper prevented the media from meeting with him, hearing about his ordeal, or even taking his picture. So he could portray Khadr as a monster. And since I have never defended anyone as long and as strongly as I have that child soldier, you can imagine how I feel to see him ride free at last.
I wrote my first post on Omar Khadr eight years ago, and called it The Guantanamo Kid and Canada's Shame. And nothing that has happened since has ever changed my view. For what was done to that child soldier has been one of the most shameful episodes in modern Canadian history, and an absolute travesty of justice. So you can imagine how happy I felt today when I saw that picture of Omar walking free in his own country at last. Or read these words.
It's going to be a very emotional Remembrance Day in Canada, especially at the National War Memorial. For the reasons we all know, for the blood spilled. And at the stroke of eleven I will stop whatever I'm doing, and remember those who gave their lives, and honour our veterans. But for the first time ever, I won't even try to watch the always moving ceremony at the National War Memorial. Because at this point in my life, in this broken country, I could not stand to see Stephen Harper exploit such a sacred occasion.
With one week to go in the Scottish referendum the YES side's surge to independence appears to have been at least temporarily halted, with a new poll suggesting the NO side is leading again. The YouGov survey for The Times and Sun newspapers put supporters of the union on 52 per cent, narrowly ahead of supporters of independence on 48 per cent, excluding those who said they did not know how they would vote. But with 97% of those eligible registered to vote, either side could still win. And the good news for the YES side is that most of its support is still intact even after being battered by an all-out assault worthy of Darth Vader himself...
We always knew he was the most disgusting bully this country has ever seen.
We knew that he was using Revenue Canada to try to intimidate his political opponents. Or anyone who disagreed with the foul policies of his depraved regime. And now that monstrous political thug is going after Pen Canada.
When I heard the news that Nelson Mandela had died at first I was sad, like billions of people all over the world. For he was my greatest living hero, and somehow I had hoped that he would live forever. “Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father,” South African President Jacob Zuma said in a sombre speech to the nation just before midnight, broadcast on all major television channels.
“He is now resting. He is now at peace. ... Although we knew this day would come, nothing will diminish our sense of a profound and enduring loss.”
In just a few hours I'll be following the rainbow, or waving it, at the Toronto Pride parade. Along with about a million gay people and their straight friends and supporters. It's always an awesome spectacle. A chance to celebrate our community, our survival, and in my case at least, send a giant F**K YOU to every bigot in the world. Because that's what the rainbow flag means to me. FREEDOM.
Sometimes I can't help feeling that a lot of Canadians have forgotten the fundamental lesson of the War Measures Act. And that is, it wasn't Pierre Trudeau's finest hour, it was his darkest. It was an October nightmare, that led to the arrests of hundreds of innocent people. It wasn't needed to ensure public safety, or arrest and prosecute the terrorists. And this bill isn't either.
When I lived in the McGill Student Ghetto, I was told that Richie Havens once lived in the building next door. Either shortly before or after Woodstock, when he fell in love with a woman who worked at Eaton's. Or so the legend went. And when I sat on my small rickety wooden balcony, on a hot summer's night, and played my guitar, I would think of him. Because he was amazing.
Well today was Robbie Burns Day, the most sacred day of the Old Scottish Calendar. And no doubt all over the world the Tartan Army was drinking heavily, and eating the horrible haggis. But not me eh? Because although I'm extremely proud of my Scottish heritage, I don't drink, I don't touch the awful offal.
What a fairy tale day it was. What an awesome spectacle of democracy. What a great day to be a progressive. A black President on Martin Luther King Day standing up for freedom, justice, and equality. A solemn President Barack Obama took the oath of office for the second time in as many days on Monday, this time before an estimated 800,000 jubilant citizens who cheered on his appeal for Americans to come together and fight for cherished U.S. principles of justice and equality.
And so it came to pass. On the 100th day of their amazing struggle, they refused to be intimidated by a totalitarian bill, and turned Montreal RED.
A sea of students, their numbers swollen by trade unionists, teachers and other supporters, flooded through the streets of Montreal in a massive turnout marking the 100th day of a protest movement that is growing broader and bolder.
Reported estimates placed the number of protesters Tuesday at between 100,000 and 250,000.
It's just after 8pm in Montreal, and the reporter from CUTV is talking to a young mother who is taking her two kids to the 28th nightly demonstration in a row.
Even though she knows she could be arrested, for defying the Charest government's totalitarian Bill 78, like so many were the night before.
About 300 people were arrested and 20 were injured during overnight protests in Montreal in defiance of Quebec's contentious Bill 78, which cracks down on student-stoked demonstrations sparked by the province's proposed tuition hikes.
And I read what kind of peace the Quebec government's totalitarian Bill 78 has brought.
The adoption of emergency legislation to end Quebec's escalating student crisis stoked fiery debate across the province overnight, from highly charged street protests that lasted into the wee hours to harsh editorials and some calls for civil disobedience.
When I read how police pepper sprayed the peaceful patrons of a bar. On a patio of all places.
There are still issues concerning benefits that have nothing to do with the legacy of DADT and everything to do with DOMA, the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. For instance, because of DOMA, the surviving same-sex spouse of a service member is out of luck in receiving the same considerations a surviving straight spouse. You better believe there are plans in the works to right this wrong.
Somewhere in the Middle East a young soldier from the American Bible Belt who had to cover up his face on YouTube for so long...
Finally summoned up the courage to tell his dad he was gay...
Good for him. Good for his dad. Good for everybody who struggled so long and so hard to make this day a reality.
And a special thanks to the embattled black President who finally kept his freedom promise.
It's a giant step for equality. But until the day that all gay people are free finally arrives.
I found the sight of Jack Layton leaving the House of Commons for the last time incredibly moving.
The cannons blasting, the people clapping, the bells playing "Imagine."
And when the funeral cortege crossed the bridge into Quebec, so Jack could say a last goodbye to Quebecers, I had to turn my head away so my co-workers wouldn't think I cry easily.
And that it could change Canadian politics in ways most people cannot IMAGINE.
Because these words have fallen like rain on a desert.
My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.
And I agree with Stephen Lewis, who will deliver Jack's eulogy.
"That's what's so fascinating about the phenomenon of Jack Layton. Everybody feels that he's a friend — and a friend that they would willingly follow," Lewis observed. "Beyond the sadness and pain of his death — and it is an incomparable loss — there will lie a legacy which continues. I really feel that."
I know it's fashionable in Canada to sneer at emotion. And to regard people like me, as hopelessly idealistic or naive.
But I don't care eh? Because I was born into a bigoted world, so I never had a choice but to struggle for a better one, or a Promised Land.
And although I might not cry easily, I am proud to wear my heart on my sleeve. I feel sorry for those who can't. For why should they fear death when they are dead already?
And long before I even heard of Jack Layton, I had another hero.
And these mighty words, the night before he was murdered, compelled me to fight the bigots and the bullies...
Did you see that tiny rainbow? That's what hope means to me. My Promised Land is a kinder, gentler, fairer world.
I want to get there so much. Just like Jack did, but couldn't. So we will get there for him.
Yup. Some people and some words CAN move mountains.
The Jack Nation is born. And even in the darkness of Harperland.
On Thursday it will be one year since Bradley Manning was arrested by the U.S. military and accused of leaking classified documents and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks.
The massive leak revealed war crimes, embarrassed the rich and the powerful, and is credited with sparking the Arab Revolution.
Now the PBS program Frontline takes a close look at Manning by resurrecting his Facebook account, and finds an angry young gay soldier trapped in a homophobic nightmare.
Frontline offers a compelling picture of Manning’s youth and army career – a young gay man who seemed to be endlessly at war with authority. What the Facebook material reveals is a person who hated the baiting and harassment he received for being gay. Because of the U.S. Army’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” rules, he could do little except internalize his anger.
A lonely young man, sensitized to injustice by the bigotry he experienced, and disgusted at the world around him.
A young gay activist tired of being forced to live a lie. And not afraid to stand up for his rights.
Here's an excerpt from the PBS documentary.
I don't think many understand how angry homophobia can make gay people. How they can't escape it no matter how hard they try. How it attacks them and the ones they love.
And how it can motivate them to fight for the rights of others. From the civil right's struggle of black people, to the war on women's rights. With no quarter given.
But I do.
As John Doyle says it's an amazing story.
You couldn’t make it up, and the truth as it is chronicled here is beyond bewildering.
A motherlode of “if” questions ensue for the viewer. But the key one is this: “If” the U.S. Army were better equipped to absorb into its a ranks a young gay man, would the events never have happened? There’s a shock of recognition there, too.
Yup. Bigotry is bewildering, and has consequences.
