The Canada Day bomb plot: "profoundly shocking" or obvious bullshit?

BC preem Christy Clark claims she finds the Canada Day bomb plot "profoundly shocking."

Everybody who knew the two alleged bombers are certainly profoundly shocked. They were a couple of white trash druggies on welfare who don't have the wherewithal to come up with the monthly rent, let alone a bomb plot.

The RCMP claims they intervened early and the public was never at risk.

I believe them.

I believe the RCMP intervened early. Early enough to coax those two along on their path to becoming "terrorists." Early enough to supply the pressure cookers and the bomb-making materials. In fact, when this comes to trial we'll once again see that without the use of well-paid RCMP informants this case would never have happened.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews claims this is more proof that we must be ever vigilant.

When you spend billions fighting non-existent terrorists, it's essential that you find some once in awhile, just to keep the public on board.

But I must say the caliber of the "terrorists" they are finding is downright disappointing. Two drug addicted white misfits who love heavy metal music and recently converted to Islam?...

And suddenly they want to become heavy metal jihadists?

Ya, right...

Canada leads NATO nations in declaring Taliban an official terrorist entity

All informed observers acknowledge that for peace to come to Afghanistan the West must negotiate with the Taliban. In fact, there are negotiations about negotiations going on right now in Dubai.

So what's up with this exercise in grandstanding by the Government of Canada?

Also of interest is that the announcement apparently comes from the office of old Vic Toews, the Minister of Public Safety, rather than from the Department of Foreign Affairs where it more properly belongs.

Could it be that this is just another manifestation of sour grapes due to the fact that the Taliban ran the Canadians out of Afghanistan?

Who can ever forget the big talk from General Rick Hillier at the time Canada's Afghan mission was announced; the Taliban were "scumbags and murderers" and Hillier and company were going set things right pronto.

There followed several years of bold pronouncements about punching above our weight, and, reiterated many times; we're not the type to cut and run.

Then the Canadians cut and ran.

But they're still talking above their weight.

Coming soon to Canada; privatized police forces

There are a number of forces at play that will make private policing a reality in Canada sooner rather than later.

First of all, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews likes the idea.

Secondly, it's disconcerting for the Harper gang to see how many cops are showing up on various sunshine lists. Almost half the members of the Toronto Police are making six numbers a year. That's got to be awkward for the Harperites who view all public spending as anathema.

While the proposals on the table will only hive off "minor" police duties to the private sector, you can bet it won't take long for the private sector to clamour for more of the policing pie.

Thirdly, there is an overabundance of viable candidates for these jobs. For about twenty years now there has been a steady growth in college courses aimed at preparing candidates for a career in policing. These "police foundations" and similar courses graduate exponentially more wannabe cops than can be hired by police forces.

These folks may have their eye on a gun and a badge, but the vast majority inevitably end up as mall cops or Brinks guards.

This leaves a perfect niche for privatized policing. Here are Paul Guindon's thoughts on the matter almost eight years ago.

Obviously Guindon has not been idle in the intervening years, and now that he has the ear of the media and the Minister for Public Safety, good things will be happening soon.

Canada compromises FBI terror investigation so Harper gang can make the evening news

According to this story, the Harper government threw a spanner into an FBI investigation by arresting a couple of alleged terror suspects last Monday.

As you will recall, that is the sensational case that not only claims to have uncovered the first al-Qaeda plot in North America since 9/11, it also ties Iran to al-Qaeda!

That's big news indeed!

I'm certainly not the only observer who found the timing of Monday's arrests cuter than cute. The Vancouver Sun, leaning heavily on an article in The Wall Street Journal, is making essentially the same claim today that was made here a few days ago.

But the Sun ups the ante exponentially. The Harperites weren't just manipulating Canadian police with the timing of these arrests and the ensuing press conference. They were effectively scuttling an FBI investigation into the US contacts of the two guys they arrested, even after the FBI asked them to hold off.

I guess that's one way for Harper to prove he's more than a US bumboy.

Canadians declare al-Qaeda "a cancer"

It would be wrong to label Defense Minister MacKay and Foreign Minister Baird the dumb and dumber of the Harper cabinet, for the simple reason that this would be unfair to Toews and Fantino. Besides, Fantino and Toews are floundering about in junior portfolios, while Baird and MacKay have big-boy chairs.

Be that as it may, both Baird and MacKay figure in a Canadian news story today. MacKay has realized that al-Qaeda is a cancer that must be cut out. Interesting analogy. Cutting out cancer is only one method of combating the big C. There's chemo, there's radiation. Most importantly there's prevention.

If you can prevent the al-Qaeda cancer you won't have to worry about cutting it out twenty or fifty or a hundred years later.

The think tank here at Falling Downs has spent a considerable amount of time on this prevention issue. Just as getting folks to stop smoking will curtail a certain amount of cancer, changing our behaviour will prevent a certain amount of Islamic radicalism. For example, if we turned away from killing their children and stealing their resources, I'm willing to bet that a lot of the militant stuff would be nipped in the bud just like that.

Baird reiterates that Canada is willing to do its part to push back the al-Qaeda tide in Mali. Canada's part in pushing back this most grave threat to civilization, according to Baird, is lending France an airplane for a couple of weeks.

That would be the equivalent of giving the oncologist a ride to the hospital.

But we're doing our part!

Canada cracks down on imaginary terror threats

Here's  what the law and order crowd think Canada is up against in the way of terror threats.

Freeman of the Land. Yup. Read the story. These guys carry guns to the grocery store and drive their vehicles without license plates.

I should point out at this juncture that PostMedia and The Vancouver Sun are generally considered serious news outlets.

So how they can justify publishing sensationalist fantasy like this is a bit of a puzzle. Perhaps because this is "insider" info that required a freedom of information request to get access to they think it has some legitimacy.

Let me assure the international reader that no one in Canada drives their vehicle without license plates, because everyone knows you will drive only so long as the first patrol car notices that you are driving without them, and then they will take your vehicle and, assuming that was your only transgression, you will be walking home.

If, on the other hand, you were driving your unregistered vehicle to the grocery store whilst wearing your unregistered handgun on your hip, you would be going straight to jail in any province or territory in Canada.

This tale of imaginary threats comes from CSIS, Canada's spy agency. They obviously have a vested interest in overstating exponentially any threats to law and order in the country, because that is what will ensure their budget next year and the year after.

And that plays straight into the hands of the Fantinos and the Toews and the rest of the out of touch ward-heelers that make up the Harper cabinet.

The reality is that Canada is by far one of the most peaceable nations on the planet. Even our most oppressed minority with by far the most grievances  (that would be the First Nations) refrain from picking up arms against the state.

As for the rest of their terror list; a smear job from beginning to end, and the only purpose in lumping the racist extremists in with the anti-globalists and the environmentalists is to expand the pool of potential terror threats.

The vast majority of Canadians can readily see through this facile nonsense.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure the same can be said for the Harper cabinet.

Meet Canada's Minister of Public Stupidity

Vic Toews comes by his reactionary politics honestly. He was born into a German Mennonite community in Paraguay, one of the favored destinations of Nazis on the lam after WWII. Those Nazi war criminals and the Mennonites had one thing in common; they hated anything that smacked of Bolshevism.

That makes Toews feel right at home in the Harper cabinet. There are many tentacles of Bolshevism yet to be uprooted in Canadian society. Anything to do with workers rights, unions, unemployment insurance, and so on.

In fact, old Vic is such an over-the-top right-winger that his right-wing boss had to yank him out of the Attorney General job and put him into something a little lower profile, the newly created Ministry of Public Safety.

So when the opposition was asking pointed questions in the House of Commons today about the Ashley Smith travesty, old Vic seized the moment.

Smith is the Canadian teenager who was bounced around between eleven different prisons before she succeeded in killing herself after years in solitary confinement. The case is a bit of an embarrassment to the law and order crowd because it highlights the futility and inhumanity of their approach to juvenile "crime."

Smith's treatment at the hands of prison authorities would have made those Nazis of Toew's youth blush with embarrassment. She was beaten, tasered, drugged and duct-taped. If you've got the stomach for this sort of thing you can find some of the videos her tormentors made on You Tube.

Vic sniffed out an undercurrent of Bolshevist sensibility in the opposition's line of questioning. After all, any right thinking Canadian would understand that prison staff were just doing their job, and besides, anybody in the system wouldn't be there to begin with if they didn't deserve it.

So he quickly turned the tables on the questioners. They obviously care far more for criminals than they do for the victims of crime.

And obviously Ashley Smith was a criminal.

Why else would she be in prison?

If you're not for unlimited police monitoring of the internet you're for pedophilia

That's the word from Canada's Minister for Public Safety, Vic Toews.

Sounds like one of those biblical all-or-nothing declarations that W was so fond of. "If you are not with us in the war on terror, you are against us and for the terrorists."

Toews is one of the law-and-order guys so at home in the Harper cabinet. It was only last week that he attracted a little ink with his declaration that torture is hunky-dory and damn right Canada will act on information derived from torture.

Now he's claiming that anyone against unlimited police powers to track your internet travels is obviously a supporter of child porn.

Otherwise, why would you have anything to hide?

Well Vic, not that you'll find any child porn, or even grown-up porn on my computer, but there's plenty of things you don't need to see.

Like my e-mails to my children.

Like my e-mails to and from lawyers about this and that.

Like my visits to a variety of websites across the political spectrum that might be considered "radical" depending on what kind of imbecile gets the Minister of Public Safety gig next.

Like my frequent letters here and there about trading Kessel and firing the front office.

Like... like a whole lot of stuff.

The Office of Public Safety was one of those post-9/11 creations that sprang from the initial Twin Towers attack, much like the Department of Homeland Security in the US.

Since there's never been another 9/11 these folks find themselves in the awkward position of having to constantly invent imaginary terror threats to justify their continued existance.

So they go home and read 1984 every night and wake up to new terror threats every morning.

Like, oh, you know, people who might want to take their manicure scissors on an airplane.

Box-cutters, manicure scissors,... hey, you can't be too vigilant in these dangerous times.

And why don't we have a look-see through your in-box just to see if you've been aiding and abetting people who want to take their manicure scissors on an airplane.

What? You object?

What do you have to hide? Could you have kiddie-porn on your computer?

Think we better have a look...

Canada gives thumbs up to torture

Vic Toews, Canada's Minister for Public Safety, was outed this week as a torture enthusiast.

Toews doth protest. In a letter to the editor of the Globe and Mail he claims that Canada does not endorse torture. Instead, Canada outsources torture to less moral countries who are happy to do the dirty work. Often they do the actual dirty work with Canadian security agents in the room, be it in Syria or Libya or Sudan or some other God-forsaken hell-hole.

But Canada does not condone torture.

In his letter to the editor Toews makes it clear that our hands are squeaky clean. However, information gleaned through the torture process in other countries is and will be used by Canadian law-enforcement agencies to protect Canadian lives and Canadian property.

There you go, tree-huggers. Enjoy your free trip to Yemen!