David Fortin and the Bullies

When I read about what the bullies did to David Fortin it makes me both sad and angry.

Despite being big for his age, David never fought back when other kids teased or hit him. His only friend was a girl who, like him, was often bullied.

In elementary school, David’s teachers would dismiss him five minutes early so he could run home before the other kids got out of class. “Because otherwise, they would beat him up or throw snowballs at him if it was winter. And sometimes, when he didn’t have time, he would hide until all the others left. Or he would wait for his sister, and his little sister would have to defend him.

Sad because although I should know better, I still can't believe that people can be so cruel.

Gangs of kids lay in wait for David at lunch hour and after school. He was taunted, punched and kicked, his possessions stolen and vandalized.

“I don’t know how many times we had to buy new bicycles. They came and stole them from our yard. I can also tell you that the windows of his bedroom were broken more than once.”

Angry because these bullies got away with it, and school officials still don't get it.

There is no reason to believe David Fortin's disappearance had anything to do with bullying at school, claims the official who oversees the high school the teen attended.

Listen, we do everything possible so it doesn't happen...But you know, getting called fat, getting called a fag - look, unfortunately, kids go through that.

Oh boy. I could say such angry things. Because bullies drive me wild. I'm sorry to say by the time I left high school I had probably picked more fights with them than they did with me.

But David Fortin had a right to be gentle.








No Canadian child should have to endure what he had to endure. And bullying should NEVER be taken for granted.

Which is why I like this so much.

As of today all school staff in Ontario are required to report serious student incidents such as bullying to the school principal.

Staff who fail to report serious incidents could face sanctions under the Ontario College of Teachers Act for failing to comply with the Education Act.

And why I like this even MORE.

In what may be the first case of its kind in Ontario, the mother of a nine-year-old Kitchener boy is suing the Waterloo Region Catholic School Board and the Region of Waterloo for failing to protect her son from bullying.

The lawsuits, filed in small claims court, allege the boy has been traumatized by bullies who have repeatedly sent him home with bruises, fat lips, cuts and stab wounds from a pencil.

Because until people start PAYING for this crime against children nothing will ever change. Canada has one of the worst bullying records in the developed world.

And enough is ENOUGH...

The Cons and the Armageddon Factor

Sometimes the Rights and Democracy story reminds me of the scene in the movie 2001, when a bunch of apes come across a strange black monolith. And start to scream and jump up and down.

They know it's scary. But none of them knows what it means.

Because it is a strange and sinister story. And it's a complicated one, so it's hard to see the trees for the forest. And the full horror has yet to be revealed.

But really all you need know for now, is that when the Cons say they didn't have anything to do with the brutal right-wing assault on Rights and Democracy, they're blowing smoke out of their pie holes.

The board didn’t spring fully-grown from the forehead of Jupiter; it was appointed, name by name, by the government. It’s easy enough to draw the connections. Brad Farquhar ran for the Conservatives. Ian Brodie thanks Marco Navarro-Génie in the acknowledgments of his doctoral thesis. And so on. Any government has a perfect right to name people it likes to boards. But that makes it all the more rich when the government suddenly proclaims that it has nothing to do with a dispute involving the board.

Then all you need to do is take a good look at the people the Cons appointed....the so-called Gang of Seven.

Brad Farquhar. A management consultant in Regina, he ran against Liberal Ralph Goodale in the 2006 election on an anti-gay platform, according to The Canadian Press.

Rights and Democracy is mandated by Parliament to work for "the promotion, development and strengthening of democratic and human rights institutions and programs that give effect to the rights and freedoms enshrined in the International Bill of Human Rights."

Yet five of the seven have little experience in human rights....Add the anti-gay and pro-Guantanamo Bay views on the board, and you can see how much the agency's mission is being subverted. And how it's mostly the Reform/Canadian Alliance tail that is wagging the Conservative dog.

Add a few little details...like how some people at B'Nai Brith have been known to work with some of the worst homophobes on Earth... rabid hatemongering leaders of the Christianist Right.

A former B’nai Brith officer himself, Scheinberg points to the decision to seek common ground with the Christian right, especially Charles McVety and the Canada Christian College - fundamentalists preaching the literal inerrancy of the Scriptures, traditional roles for women, the prohibition of gay marriage, the criminalization of abortion - and the Christian Zionist philosophy that God’s original covenant with Israel remains in effect and must be respected by all nations.

Or consider the interesting footnote that Marco Navarro-Genie, the climate change denier, and Guantanamo fan, once wrote a book called Augusto Cesar Sandino-- Messiah of Light and Truth. That focused on the Latin American revolutionary's beliefs that the End Times are here, "The Messiah is" coming, and the "Chosen" will rule the world.

Which just happens to be what the rabid religious bigots in the Con base believe.

And then ask yourself what on earth are these people doing in an organization that is supposed to be working for HUMAN RIGHTS ? Why are the theocons in the PMO appointing these kind of people? And what exactly is their hidden agenda?

I told you it was a complicated story eh?

But don't worry the monolith is coming.




















Few Canadians are aware that a militant band of conservative Christians with a direct pipeline to Harper's cabinet is also attempting to reshape the country's social, cultural and even scientific policies, driven by a belief that Canada has a biblically ordained role to play in the final days before Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ.

Nobody has ever written a better article on the theocon penetration of the Harper Cons than Marci McDonald.

Now she has written a book. And when Canadians finally understand what is going on.

And the full horror is REVEALED.

Those ghastly alien Cons will scream like crazy apes.

But NOTHING will save them....

Why I Won't be Watching the Super Bowl

I won't be watching the Super Bowl tomorrow for two very good reasons. One I hate American football.

And two.... I wouldn't want to watch Tim Tebow's anti-abortion ad.

Tebow will appear in the commercial with his mother, Pam, who reportedly will tell one of the Tebow family's favorite stories: How, after severe complications arose in her 1987 pregnancy, she declined medical advice to have an abortion. Her fifth child -- Tim -- was born and went on to win the Heisman trophy in 2007.

Not just because that story is extremely dubious.

The fact is Pammy had a CHOICE.... and so should other women.

But also because nothing can change the fact that she was extremely lucky and so was T-Bone.

To have emerged practically unscathed....













Apart from those ugly birthmarks under his eyes....and the severely limited intelligence of a Christianist idiot.

Because it doesn't always work out that way...



So CBS wouldn't run that commercial eh?

Just like they wouldn't run a gay ad.

But they are only too happy to allow the crazed homophobes and wingnuts from Focus on the Family to attack the rights of women.

Which is why I'm with these grannies...



Yup. It really is going to be great not watching the Super Bowl.

Who needs all that Amerikan craziness eh?

When I can tell CBS to shove that ad up their corporate asses. Switch off the TV. Grab my skates.... and Sébastien.

And just be a Canadian...













Have a great Focus on the Family Super Bowl-less Sunday everyone.

I know I will...

Stephen Harper's Desperate Damage Control

Oh no.Somebody call a guy with a net. Our Lord of the Onion Ring has been staging his own version of Question Period. And pretending to be a hockey fan. Again.

“He’s like this all the time. He’s like a kid in a candy shop — he loves hockey,” said a media representative of the Prime Minister’s Office, who went on to jokingly agree that it was no wonder Parliament Hill came to a grinding halt a few weeks ago after a prorogue was declared. Canadian politics are kind of drab when matched up with the likes of Wayne Gretzky.

And as you can see it wasn't pretty.

Though casual about it, it was clear Harper was simply infatuated with No. 99 and was left hanging on every word that escaped from Gretzky’s humble lips. Gretzky could have asked Harper to prank call North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il and fart into the mouthpiece and the prime minister likely would have agreed to his request.

Gawd almighty. Fart into the mouthpiece? Holy Jong Jebesus. First the theocons in the PMO direct our foreign policy, now Gretzky?

But what do you expect? Even Don Martin now admits Great Strategic Genius , Mother Theresa Ugly Onion Ring leader is DESPERATE.

Perhaps the realization they have been too-smart-by-half is reflected in amateur-hour mistakes that run counter to the Conservative's cool, disciplined style.

All these empty ministerial pontifications prompted the CBC's Rick Mercer to remark on Twitter that "it's like when they wheel out [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-il just to prove he's still upright and breathing."

And the best thing?

Next week looks no better, with Mr. Harper making his first address to a provincial legislature, which raises the questionable optics of how Olympic host politicians are actually working in a Liberal controlled B.C. legislature while his government stands adjourned.

Because Great Onion Ring said he couldn't work and watch the Olympics eh? When everyone knows he's been extremely busy, doing one photo-op after the other.

And selling us out to the Americans.

To put it another way, we've promised to open our so-called sub-national government procurement markets permanently in exchange for partial access to a U.S. program that is due to expire in 11 days.

Gawd. Is that just incompetence? Or is it treason?

And how I wonder does Harper think he can win over the people of B.C.?

Not just by being there I hope....

He does? OMG. Call the guy with the net. Or press the emergency button.

Heh. Heh. Heh. I LOVE the smell of onion rings in the morning.

We have these Cons where we want them.

Mmmmm....TASTY.

And now we're going to def-EAT them...

The Death of Brendan Burke

What a sad story. So young, so brave, so much to look forward to, gone in a moment.

I feel so sorry for his family. Because they loved him they worried about him. Because they loved him they were there when he needed them. Because they loved him they were proud.

And he must have been so proud of them. Especially his old man.

As for us gay guys who love sports, but so often have our fun ruined by homophobia. Or have to grow up without any sporting heroes, because bigotry makes them afraid to come out. Or ruins their careers.

We will not forget that he was brave, that he was proud, that he spoke for all of us.

Way to go Brendan. Rest in peace brother. You didn't get much time. But you were OUR hero.

And we will REMEMBER...

------------------------------------------------------------

Here's a video of Brendan and his dad being interviewed shortly after he came out.

Stephen Harper's Desperate Search for Love

OMG. I knew Great Strategic Genius ,Humanitarian Ugly Leader was crazy wild. I knew he has been spending a lot of time in the Con War Room, sweating over polls and trying to figure out how to make Canadians love him again.

Awwwwww.

But this is ridiculous.

MPs will be staying in Ottawa for March Break, part of a plan by the governing Conservatives to pack extra time into the parliamentary calendar.

Can you imagine admitting he was WRONG.... and then punishing others for something HE did? Golly. Will that make him look like Mr Nice Guy? Or Great Mother Leader...the new/nouveau friend of women and children? Or a sinister political thug with a disturbing vindictive streak?

Not that it's his fault eh?

But this is unforgivable.

The B.C. legislature is slightly agog over next week's pending visit by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Apparently, he intends to address the chamber Thursday...Apparently, the visit was not by invitation from the provincial government. Rather it was Ottawa's idea.

Oh.My.Mussolini. Can you believe the nerve of that tin pot dictator? Inviting HIMSELF to address a provincial Parliament..... while keeping the one in Ottawa chained, dark, and silent ? Even Baby Doc Duvalier didn't do that.

And speaking of Voodoo stuff... only the Monkey God knows what Harper might say ....like.... Welcome to MY games. I light the torch...you get my Porky Action Plan. Or ELSE...

Because in his present mental state Great Ugly is capable of saying or doing ANYTHING to try to fool idiot Canadians into thinking he's just an average guy. A man of the people.

I mean Holy Shit !!!!

Stephen Harper says he’d rather be playing hockey in the NHL than playing politics in the House of Commons.

Huh? Wot? That wonky nerd would rather be a professional hockey player than Prime Minister? And settle for cheap adulation and hookers...instead of the raw naked POWER he craves to change Canada beyond recognition?

Stephen Harper? A normal guy? Muahahahaha. Any Canadian who believes that one should stop drinking immediately, or get a brain transplant.

Hally Boobah. EXCELLENT. I do believe we have the monster where we want him. Trapped, desperate, and slowly going crazy. But still thinking he's a political genius who can fool ANYONE.

Good work people. And how do you like that onion ?

The one that's already almost TWICE as popular as he is. Mmmmmm.... TASTY. And how appropriate eh?

He set out to be King Stephen. But ended up as our Lord of the Onion Ring.

Which does come with a throne.

Just not the one he wanted...














Remember how those nasty bully Cons used ridicule to destroy Dion?

Well holy onion ring.

Now it's OUR turn....

The Monster and Omar Khadr

Just when I think that Stephen Harper couldn't possibly burrow any deeper into the muck of moral depravity. He does.

The Conservative government will not be asking the United States to send prisoner Omar Khadr home to Canada, despite a Supreme Court ruling last week that found his Charter rights were - and continue to be - violated.

Violating the human rights of a young Canadian, and horking in the face of the Supreme Court.

And why? Because his rabid base would never stand for him bringing that brownie Mooslim terrorist back to Canada because they hate him and his family soooooooo much.

And sadly so do a lot of other Canadians.

More than half of respondents (54%) say they do not feel sympathy for Khadr's plight, including 74% of Albertans. The proportion of Canadians who do not feel sympathy for Khadr's plight has increased by nine points since January 2009.

Probably because over the last year this photo...
















Has been replaced by this one.














Even though he was a boy when he was victimized by his crazy parents. Abused by the Taliban who used him as a gopher and a tea boy. Riddled with shrapnel, blinded in one eye, shot twice in the back by the Americans. Dragged off and tortured first in Bagram then in Guantanamo. Abandoned by his own government.

Even though he could not have thrown the grenade that killed that American soldier.

Even though by all accounts he is a decent young guy, who prefers reading comic books than studying the Koran, misses his homeland, and dreams of becoming a graphic artist. Although he is blind in one eye, slowly losing his sight in the other. And of course, after all those years in Guantanamo, is slowly losing hope.

But still so many Canadians don't feel sorry for him?

Oh boy. I don't know who those Canadians are, or where those Alberta values come from. But I don't want to live with them.

I want my country back.

Stephen Harper is a moral monster.

And Omar Khadr lives here...

Stephen Harper and the Prorogation Protest

Oh dear. It looks as if Stephen Harper has disappeared from public view. Which is what he always does when he goes off the deep end and pulls some kind of boo boo.

Like this one.

Oh Mein Gotterdammerung. Fifteen points in two months. Ouch. That must REALLY hurt.

Which explains why he's probably sulking in the Con war room, plotting all kinds of desperate moves, biting the carpet, and counting on his Nuremberg moment.

No doubt hoping that Canadians will love him again if he waddles the Olympic torch around the stadium. Or claims he is writing a book about Olympic movement. Even longer than the one on hockey.

Good luck.

But of course I'm sure he's not the only one hoping that Canadians will forgive them for what they did ....or wrote.

Grassroots fury? Thousands of people in the streets, switchboard’s browning out with indignant calls and a tsunami of e-mails might be considered a grassroots fury. Facebook groups, on the other hand, amount to a kind of ephemeral eruption that usually passes like a hot flash or the urge to vote for the Green party.

But where Harper has a hard time taking the national pulse, he enjoys an uncanny skill at divining what the people don’t care about. Harper knows ordinary Canadians don’t care about the intricacies of Parliamentary procedure.

Some political judgement....some ephemeral eruption. More than 222-thousand and COUNTING.

Oh boy. More wrong and idiot than that and they have to water you eh?

Besides that kind of tired old cynicism in a country as young as Canada makes me want to VOMIT. Because the day a country stops caring about democracy....or dreaming of something better... it shrivels up and dies.

Oh well....the important thing is that we really showed them. Thousands and thousands of decent Canadians all over the country FINALLY stood up to those foul Cons.

And since I FINALLY got some time to put a proper video together of the rally I attended. Whew.

I do declare it was AWESOME...



Eat your cynical hearts out you miserable Cons.

The Canadian people have said enough is ENOUGH.

The struggle continues.

And your days are NUMBERED...

The PMO's Secret War on Canada

More evidence today about the secret war being conducted by the PMO against some precious Canadian institutions that have helped define this country.

From the tortured labyrinth of the Catholic Church we learn how the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health...formerly Planned Parenthood Canada... has had its budget gutted.

According to the financial returns of the CFSH and the former PPFC, which are public information available at the Canada Revenue Agency website, the federation received $1,143,358 in federal government grants in 2005, while their total expenditures that year came to $2,360,903. In other words, Ottawa provided about half (48 per cent) of their operating budget.

In 2008, grants totaled $482,498 while its expenditures dipped to $1,467,005, about a million dollars less than it spent just three years earlier.

In 2009, total grants were $9,381. The Canadian Federation for Sexual Health’s expenditures last year totalled $815,153. Federal grants accounted for just 1.1 per cent of its spending.

Gutted no doubt because of its pro-choice stand.. So much for Great Mother Leader...the new/nouveau humanitarian and the friend of women and children.

From Haroon Siddiqui we learn more about the ReformCon assault on Rights and Democracy.

The Tory takeover of Rights and Democracy has been complex...It reports to Parliament, not the Prime Minister's Office. So the PMO has had to take a slow, circuitous route to ambush it by changing the centre's 13-member board.

And how what was good enough for Lawrence Cannon and the Department of Foreign Affairs, wasn't good enough for other powerful Cons.

As it turned out, Beauregard had run the three grants by Cannon's ministry, which approved. In fact, Al Haq had also received funding from CIDA. That was in keeping with the Canadian policy of promoting civil society in Palestinian territories to provide non-violent alternatives to terrorism. Al Haq was good enough for CIDA and foreign affairs but not Braun and Co.

Leaving Paul Wells to draw the obvious conclusion.

So if CIDA was funding Al Haq, and DFAIT was consenting to donations to Al Haq, the about-face at Rights and Democracy had to be driven from somewhere else. Probably somewhere whose initials were PMO.

And leaving little me to ask the obvious question.

Who in the PMO is directing this secret war? Darrel Reid, the Deputy Chief of Staff, and a former President of the wingnut Christianist group Focus on the Family?

The man who believes this:

"I think every Christian is under an obligation to change laws to reflect biblical values...Only God can make Canada a truly Christian country... We are called to speak biblical truth to seek justice – and that obviously has implications for our political life."

Paul Wilson, the PMO's Christianist Director of Policy?

Or Stephen Harper, the sinister control freak? Who recently said this:

“To be honest with you, I am a lot more concerned by God's verdict regarding my life than the one of historians..."

And where did these rabid ideologues ever get the idea they could wage this secret war against institutions that reflect our values, without the consent of most Canadians?

Oh boy. However you connect the dots...KAIROS, Rights and Democracy, the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health, the United Nations, and so many other policy decisions.

They all lead to the theocon conspiracy.

Which is why the MSM should try harder to connect the dots. And we should all ask ourselves, who is REALLY running Canada?















So many thought it couldn't happen here. Not in Canada.

But now it is happening. And the conclusion should be OBVIOUS eh?

Organize.Unite. Defeat these sinister SoCons.

Before they steal our country....

Omar Khadr and Mr. Torture

Like many Canadians my first reaction to today's Supreme Court decision was disappointment.

Because Omar Khadr, Canadian child soldier, has suffered enough, and he should have been brought home long ago.

But I bet I'm not as disappointed as Stephen Harper. I'm quite sure he was hoping the Court would order him to bring Khadr home. So he could turn to his rabid base, say I did my best. And then use the decision to whip up anger against the Supreme Court...that he hates more than Khadr.

But instead the Court refused to play his game. Ruled that Khadr's Charter rights have and are being violated. And dumped the whole stinking mess back into Harper's lap.

"We … leave it to the government to decide how best to respond to this judgment in light of current information, its responsibility for foreign affairs and in conformity with the charter...

Leaving it up to Harper to decide whether he is going to be Mr Charter or Mr Torture.

Just as he's trying to soften his image, and trying to make us believe that he's Great Mother Leader...a born again humanitarian, and a friend of women and children.
















Good luck eh?

It's hard enough trying to pose as a humanitarian...or a nun... after shutting down Parliament to try to avoid questions about torture. While declaring war on young offenders, and attacking human rights organizations.

And this picture of Omar, is not going to help that phony new/nouveau image...













Goodbye Great Mother Leader, hello Mr Torture.

You know I've written a lot of posts about Omar Khadr. About the horror, the injustice, and the shame.

But what I find even more shameful is that in a beautiful country like this one we have a Prime Minister like Stephen Harper. A political thug who continues to rape our values, and thinks that torture isn't important. Or that Omar Khadr, Canadian child soldier, hasn't suffered ENOUGH.

He really is a monster. We really do deserve better.

Organize, unite, defeat him.

Before he corrupts our country...