... or are you just happy to see me?

Teenager paints 60ft phallus on roof of family home

A teenager got away with painting a 60ft phallus on the roof of his parents' home for a year before his parents found out.

Rory McInnes, 18, climbed on to the flat roof of his parents' home and daubed the symbol using a tin of white paint, after watching a programme about Google Earth.
Web surfers can view detailed images from satellites using the Google software, enabling them to zoom in on their homes to see them from above.

But parents Andy and Clare did not discover their son's rude artwork until a helicopter spotted it on top of their home near Hungerford, Berks. The pilot called The Sun newspaper, which then contacted Mr McInnes to tell him.

Mr McInnes, 54, a company director, thought the newspaper was having a joke. He said: "It's an April Fool's joke, right? There's no way there's a 60ft phallus on top of my house."

However, when he asked each of his four children if there was indeed the image of a phallus on their newly-completed roof, Rory owned up.

When Mr McInnes phoned his son, who is currently in Brazil on a gap year, the teenager said: "Oh, you've found it then!"

The boy's father appeared to take the prank in good humour. But he said: "When Rory gets home he will be given a scrubbing brush and white spirit and he can go and scrub it off."

Spelling matters

More Demotivational Posters

150 Jewish Canadians sign statement against suppression of criticism of Israel

Over 150 Jewish Canadians signed a statement expressing concern about recent atttepts to suppress criticism of Israel that is being carried on within Canada:

We are Jewish Canadians concerned about all expressions of racism, anti-Semitism, and social injustice. We believe that the Holocaust legacy "Never again" means never again for all peoples. It is a tragic turn of history that the State of Israel, with its ideals of democracy and its dream of being a safe haven for Jewish people, causes immeasurable suffering and injustice to the Palestinian people.

You can see the rest of the statement here.

Heh

h/t

Don't try this at home.

No, seriously.  Don't try this at home:

I really hope this works

I know that this seems stupid, but ....

Five hours of stupidity

Blazing Cat Fur noticed a story this afternoon on an English website about the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. Who's that? From wikipedia:

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is an international organisation with a permanent delegation to the United Nations. It groups 57 member states, from the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, Caucasus, Balkans, Southeast Asia, South Asia and South America. The official languages of the organisation are Arabic, English and French.

For reasons that remain unlear our firey feline made a joke at the expense of Barbara Hall, the Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission (or OHRC):

Paging Barbara Hall - Organisation of the Islamic Conference plans human rights commission within the OIC.

Did the hirsute fever confuse the OIC and OHRC? It sure looks like it. And not only him.

Over at Free Dominion, fourhorses quoted the story, but changed the headline to

Islamic Conference creates Islamic Human Rights Commission within the Ontario Human Rights Commission

In doing so, he replaced OIC in the headline with OHRC, and filled out the abbreviation.

And then we were off to the races. Over the next five hours:

• free_life2: “Danger, Will Robinson, DANGER!”
• Connie Fournier: "Where are we going? And why are we in this handbasket?"
• Fabulous Fred: "If we do nothing we know what to expect."
• J.B. Stone: "Gaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhh...........!!!"
• Fabulous Fred: "It is time for as Christian Human Rights Commission within the OHRC. "
• Connie Fournier: "I'm slowing changing my opinion from 'we mustn't sink to their level' to 'we can only win through the doctrine of mutually assured destruction'".
• Edward Kennedy: "When you feel the hatred and anger, the bitterness and the rage, be thankful to your tormentors for they have given you the means that will be your ultimate victory over them, their tyranny, and their imposed bondage."

Etc., etc., for five hours. Until poster LittleCanuck noticed that the story has nothing to do with Ontario. Never did. OIC, not OHRC. But it took five hours before LittleCanuck from Calgary read the headline, read the story, and noticed they didn't go together.

Prehistoric Valentines message

(For the t-shirt, go here)

Worthwhile Canadian Initiative

In Newsweek, Fareed Zakaria writes:

The legendary editor of The New Republic, Michael Kinsley, once held a "Boring Headline Contest" and decided that the winner was "Worthwhile Canadian Initiative." Twenty-two years later, the magazine was rescued from its economic troubles by a Canadian media company, which should have taught us Americans to be a bit more humble. Now there is even more striking evidence of Canada's virtues. Guess which country, alone in the industrialized world, has not faced a single bank failure, calls for bailouts or government intervention in the financial or mortgage sectors. Yup, it's Canada. In 2008, the World Economic Forum ranked Canada's banking system the healthiest in the world. America's ranked 40th, Britain's 44th.

So how come my bank stocks are sucking so much?

Read the rest here.

Two cases in point

Human Rights expert Richard Moon testified to a committee of the Ontario Legislature today. You can see more of Moon's testimony preliminary transcript at Kinsella:

There are a number of right-wing critics in Canada who, instead of offering serious and plausible criticism of the Human Rights Code regulations, engage in baseless personal attacks. Without compunction, they accuse the civil servants who are mandated to implement human rights legislation of corruption. They use the term “corruption” freely and very loosely, but always in a way that suggests a significant breach of public trust. The accusations have no substance; they are pieced together out of nothing. But what they achieve, what the commentators want them to achieve, is a general sense that there is a serious problem, even if the specifics of the problem are unknown.

Just what might Prof. Moon mean by "the accusations have no substance; they are pieced together out of nothing"? Two examples come to mind.

One of them was to accuse human rights activist Richard Warman of a nasty racist denunciation of Senator Anne Cools on a racist board in 2003, an accusation that was mindlessly repeated by many conservative bloggers. The problem? It was based on a tissue of half-truths, innuendos, and misunderstandings, as I have shown here and here and here and here, and Warman is suing for defamation.

Or, who can forget the crazy allegation that CHRC employee Dean Steacy had hacked the wifi of an Ottawa woman? Both the RCMP and the privacy commissioner investigated, but both quickly dropped the matter. Why? Because there was no clear evidence that any hacking had taken place (here and here).

My experience of investigating these allegations is that underlying them is a seemingly endless string of exaggerations or half-truths or outright lies.

As Prof. Moon testifies:

Over the last few years, these commentators have made a series of baseless accusations against the members and staff or the Canadian Human Rights Commission, and these claims have leaked into the mainstream media, into the National Post, and into the columns of the Globe and Mail. Believe none of it. As I said at the outset, there are some serious questions to be addressed, but I have come to the conclusion that certain individuals who have played a large role in the campaign against human rights laws and human rights commissions, particularly in the context of hate speech, have no interest in serious debate or in the truth.

And that, as we say, is that.

CHRC cleared of wifi hacking allegation: I told you so

From the privacy commissioner:

Technological experts have indicated that, most likely, but without certainty, the association of the complainant’s IP address to the CHRC was simply a mismatch on the part of a third party, which could have occurred in a variety of ways not involving the CHRC.

What is certain is that there is no evidence of the CHRC having ever collected or improperly used, disclosed or retained any personal information about the complainant.

Just as I told you here:

Why the RCMP dumped the CHRC wifi case (70.48.181.203)

Explored in detail here:

• The spy who didn't shag my wifi 1: background
  
• The spy who didn't shag my wifi 2: someone else notices Jadewarr
• The spy who didn't shag my wifi 3: when exactly did Steacy/jadewarr have 70.48.181.203?
  
• The spy who didn't shag my wifi 4: theoretical possibilities
  
• The spy who didn't shag my wifi 5: Lemire's motion for jadewarr's IP
  
• The spy who didn't shag my wifi 6: what did Lemire ask Black about jadewarr?
  
• The spy who didn't shag my wifi 7: the right IP on the wrong date
• The spy who didn't shag my wifi 8: the technician's testimony
• The spy who didn't shag my wifi 9: Black affidavit
• The spy who didn't shag my wifi 10: the software records posts not log-ins

Fun with telemarketers

Next time you get a call from a telemarketer, you might try this:

A conversation overheard in the math department

(For the t-shirt, go here)

Truth in advertising

Apparently the pro-life brand is now seen as toxic.  That seems to be the conclusion to be drawn from the recent name-change from BC Prolife to "The Signal Hill".  What's a movement supposed to do when its agenda becomes unpopular?  Hide it, apparently.

Separatists on parade, 10: another separatist in the Conservative Party

The new Western Business and Taxpayers Association (WBTA) is a new separatist organization dedicated to creating a separate state in western Canada, first surfacing in early December. It recently revealed its new policy chair, Rob Allen, who (as BCL points out) seems to have a degree from a diploma mill. (One wonders whether the WBTA foresees its new state having a policy against credential fraud. Perhaps the policy chair has a position on this.)

There is another noteworthy point in Mr. Allen's profile, here:

Mr. Allen claims to be a member of the federal Conservative Party.

It is odd how many separatists there are among the Conservatives, as we have pointed out before:

• David Crutcher, the Executive Director of the group, blithely reports his membership in the Conservative Party in his profile (see here, which I discussed here);
• Eric Gregson, who is chairing the group's founding convention, is a prominent Conservative (see here) who seems close to Harper (here);
• a few years ago, Gordon Stamp was forced to resign as campaign manager for Conservative MP Peter Goldring after his separatist postings on the internet became known (see here);
• Bert Brown, whom Harper subsequently appointed to the senate, attended the founding convention of the Alberta Independence Party in 2001 and is quoted as having wished that group 'every success' (reports here and here).

Now, it is perfectly understandable that western separatists (whose politics tend to be conservative) would have once belonged to the Reform, Alliance, and then Conservative Parties. But I can't be the only one who is struck at how matter-of-factly these people can identify themselves as separatists and claim membership in the CPC -- the CPC is (after all) a federalist party.

This all raises the question: what are these people doing in the Conservative Party of Canada? why does the CPC allow this?  and more importantly, why do they feel comfortable there?

Other posts in this series:

• separatists on parade, 1: Erik Gregson
  
• separatists on parade, 2: WBTA claims to have ex-MPs
  
• Separatists on parade, 3: western separatists in the CPC
  
• Separatists on parade, 4: Erik Gregson to chair WBTA convention
  
• Separatists on parade, 5: Separatists bungle copy-and-paste
  
• Separatists on parade, 6: Erik Gregson comes out of the closet
• Separatists on parade, 7: WBTA BC Chair called for the execution of all Liberals
  
• Separatists on parade, 8: WBTA BC Chair comments on race war
• Separatists on parade, 9: Harper once supported separatist Erik Gregson

Fairness in media uncovers pro-weather conspiracy

The shocking truth about a conspiracy to subvert reporting about the weather:

Weather Channel Accused of Pro-Weather Bias

Cool new laptop from Apple

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Sheldon Johnston rumours

Those who followed my posts on the new Alberta separatist group, the Western Business and Taxpayers Association, may be interested to hear the latest rumour: that Sheldon Johnston (whom I've discussed before) has resigned as policy chair. So, at least a rumour mentioned at Project Alberta (here), as reported by BCL (here)

Given that he has commented on this blog in the past, perhaps he will stop by to clarify.

Update. Sheldon Johnston has announced that he will not be policy chair in the comments to Leigh Patrick Sullivan's blog.

Update 2. Dan Doherty has now confirmed this. He sent me this email and asked me to publish it:

Recently there has been some confusion in regards to Sheldon Johnson's resignation; I would like to take this opportunity to clear it up. Sheldon Johnson has now sent the WBTA correspondence resigning his position as policy chair. Given the circumstances, we regrettably accept his resignation. We expect Sheldon to return in the near future and we will keep you posted when this takes place. We wish Sheldon and his family the absolute best; our door will always be open for him. Warmest Regards Daniel W. Doherty Vice-President Western Business and Taxpayers Association

Careful on the countdown tonight

Everyone knows about leap years, but did you know about leap seconds? No? Well tonight there is going to be one. From CNN:

Immediately before midnight a leap second -- the first for three years -- will be added to atomic clocks around the world by official timekeepers.

Peter Whibberley, a senior research scientist at Britain's National Physical Laboratory, said the Earth's erratic rotation meant an extra second needed to be added.

"The difference between atomic time and Earth time has now built up to the point where it needs to be corrected, so this New Year's Eve we will experience a rare 61 second minute at the very end of 2008 and revelers... will have an extra second to celebrate."

Traditionally time has been based on the passage of the Sun across the sky -- a modern version of this is still used by astronomers to track distant stars and spacecraft.

However, since 1967, an atomic timescale -- the extremely accurate Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) -- has been the world's official clock and is used for broadcasting time signals across the world.

The accuracy of UTC is essential for the smooth running of GPS and the Internet.

By comparison, the Earth is far less reliable. It does not rotate at a constant speed -- it can even wobble -- and disruptions to its core, extreme weather, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes can influence the length of a day.

Therefore, leap seconds are occasionally added to align atomic time with astronomical time and ensure that the Sun remains overhead at noon.

Whibberley told British media anyone sober enough and who had a digital clock that picked up leap second information from a reliable source, would see the final seconds of 2008 as 57, 58, 59, 60, 00 -- with 60 being the extra second.

From the 'things that make you go awww!' department

TEST.

Debate is good. But with whom?

Winnipeg South MP Rod Bruinooge proposes to reopen the abortion debate, and Globe and Mail blogger Robert Silver, who stands firmly on the pro-choice side of the question, acknowledges that debate is good:

It is ludicrous to suggest that abortion is a topic that is taboo to debate. Earth round or flat? No debate. Holocaust happened or not? No debate. Abortion laws in Canada: a good thing or bad? A totally fair subject of debate.

He goes on to suggest that the point of the debate is to provide cover for prolife Conservative MPs by exposing a smaller number of Liberal MPs.

The parliamentary prolife caucus, however, prefers to keep its membership a secret, and so the question arises: who is going to undertake this debate and where will it take place? Presumably not in parliament, where debates about changes to the law are supposed to be conducted, and not amongst parliamentarians, who are supposed to conduct that debate.

This again underlines the basic irrationality of the position that Bruinooge and his secret caucus have taken. If they're not willing to identify themselves, how can they hope to engage in a debate?

peterodonnell

My two cents on Bruinooge's secret group

The Globe and Mail reports (here) that Rod Bruinooge has recently become the chair of a secretive, parliamentary anti-abortion caucus. Why the secrecy?

Mr. Bruinooge declined to provide details about the membership of the caucus – which he described as “sizable” – on the basis that MPs from other parties fear internal repercussions if their activism is known.

Bloggers have not been silent. Lulu points out that the deception implicit in the secrecy is not new for Bruinooge; Impolitical wonders whether Rod Bruinooge has gone rogue; JJ points out the ridiculousness of it all.

Add me to those who disapprove. A secret AA chapter? Fine. A quilting klatch? No problem. A Dungeon-and-dragons cell? Whatever. MPs have a right to keeping their personal lives personal. But Bruinooge's caucus advocates a change to public policy, and as such it should be operating out in the open.

Indeed, it is rather surprising that they do not want to operate in the open, because they can hardly hope to change public policy otherwise. If they are not going to argue their case in public, how do they expect to persuade anyone? win any votes? pass any laws?

What is one to make of all this? The point is surely that the pro-life movement is not only exceptionally weak in this country, but largely disfunctional. I've already pointed out that the prolife backlash to Morgentaler's Order of Canada award was surprisingly anemic: a handful of returned awards, a couple hundred protesters, an online-petition that immediately stalled (details here).

At one-time the Campaign Life Coalition identified prolife candidates so that prolifers could support them at the polls. Not recently, however, and the reason is not to guess: being prolife is a political liability in most parts of the country.

Which is presumably why Bruinooge's fellow caucus-members are so shy about identifying themselves: the issue loses more votes than it wins.

The Reform movement officially dead; Harper killed it

The Reform party was formed over two decades ago, and its hard to believe that it is now eight years since it formally ceased being part of our political life. Hard to believe because in many ways it hadn'treally gone away — its personnel, policies and culture largely rolled directly into the Alliance and then, with some dilution, into the Conservative party.

An important part of the Reform movement was its call for changes to Canada's governance. Four planks were central to their program:

• recall
  
• referenda
• fixed election dates
  
• an elected and equal senate

Recall was the first to be dropped and hasn't be mentioned in years. Referenda were abandoned not much later — an inevitable decision after Rick Mercer turned them into a joke with his famous 'Doris' proposal.

Having fixed election-dates, by contrasts, was achieved and passed into law in 2006 by the new Harper government. The problem? The law was a legal sham, as Harper himself showed this fall. A chance at a majority beckoned, and he called an election despite the law.

And now the senate. An elected senate was always a long-shot, since to do it properly would require a constitutional amendment, which in Canada is practically impossible. Harper, however, thought he saw a short-cut. Appoint those whom the provinces elected. The problem? Apart from Alberta, none of the provinces were interested in running such elections, and the vacancies began to pile up. Once Harper's near-death experience revealed how tenuous was Harper's grip on power, he moved to appoint 18 new senators.

In appointing these senators, of course, Harper abandoned his promise to appoint only elected senators. That's politics, and many have and will point out his inconsistency.

The important point, however, is surely that these last vestiges of the Reform agenda were undone by Harper, an old Reformer, and in doing so he surely has killed it.

Five more top blogs

Michael Taube at the National Post's Full Comment identifies a top-ten of the left-wing blogosphere, which somehow I was made part of. There are three categories:

1. The blog had to be partisan.
2. The blog had to be active.
3. The blogger had to have a blog of his/her own.

I'm not sure I pass the first two of these: I've been active lately, but I often go months without blogging. And this may strike some readers as self-delusion, but I've always thought of myself as rather non-partisan — I don't belong to any political party and do not always vote for the same party. But leave that where it is.

Taube is offering only ten top lefty-blogs, rather than the fifteen from the right (where his reading is wider). So I offer him five more that are worthy of inclusion.

1. Dr. Dawg's Blawg — Dr. D. and Marie-Ève have some of the best writing in the Canadian internet, and they are consistently perspicacious, expressive, independent, and (a rarity among political bloggers) consistent. I read it everyday. Sometimes twice. So should you.
   
2. A BCer in Toronto — Jeff is up-to-date, concise, and intelligent.
3. Canadian Cynic — a guilty pleasure of many, including me. He's rarely fair and often foul, but loads of fun.
4. Red Tory v. 3.0 — is what you'd get if you were to cross Dr. Dawg and Canadian Cynic: snarky like CC; smart like Dawg.
5. Daveberta.ca — he had to deny stealing Ed Stelmach's personality some time back — how many bloggers can say that!

How to make money in the stock-market

1. Buy shares in a company that makes an obscure product;
2. Get someone to throw said product at an internationally loathed figure;
3. Watch the money roll in.

More problems with WBTA Policy Chair's c.v.

BCL points out some problems with the profile of WBTA policy chair, Sheldon Johnston, which claims that Johnston filed a complaint against the Forces over his rejection for its champlaincy program.

The problem? Johnston didn't win the case, as he claims. It was dismissed because he consistently disregarded its deadlines and seems to have lost interest in the case (read the details in the tribunal ruling). Nor does he seem to be correct in his claim that the case paved the way for others: there was already a Muslim chaplain appointed before the Tribunal had dealt with his case (CBC story here). Johnston's complaint did attract some attention, it was profiled in a lengthy feature in Christian Weekly (a copy is archived behind the thumb-nail to the right, and here), but it seems that no one in the military or the church community or the press regarded his complaint was valid. One thing is clear Johnston was not rejected because he was a Pentacostal, as he claimed — there were (as the Christian Weekly story makes clear) other Pentacostal chaplains in the Forces. Rather, it seems that he was rejected because he was underqualified and openings were few.

Update. Rev. Johnston points out a National Post article on his complaint that he regards as fairer to himself which I've dug up and archived here for your reading pleasure.

There are, in any case, other oddities in his profile. Here is a snippit:
As you can see, the profile claims that after earning his Th.M. Johnston served as a minister of Grace Presbyterian Church in Castlegar in 2003-4.

The published proceedings of the 2004 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (pdf here, p. 585), however, reports the dissolution of Grace congregation in Castlegar on Nov. 14, 2003, and the proceedings of 2003 (pdf here, p. 668) report the Grace pastorage as 'vacant'. Both proceedings include a lengthy address list of all the denomination's professional church workers. In neither is a Sheldon Johnston listed.

Now, I'm sure there's an innocent explanation for this. But at the very least this speaks to a carelessness on the part of Rev. Johnston, something that is not a good thing in a policy chair.

Update.  Rev. Johnston's profile has been removed.  Here is what it looks like at 1 pm on Saturday, Dec. 20:

Presumably a new version will eventually appear here.

Slump dumped

WBTA VP Dan Doherty:

Dear Readers

The Western Businesses and Taxpayers Association has contacted Ernie Slump (BC Chair) for clarification of his questionable comments. Consequentially, Mr. Slump and the WBTA have mutually decided to dissolve the relationship based on incompatible philosophies.

I would like to clarify our position on this matter; our policy is one of inclusion therefore the Western Businesses and Taxpayers Association does not support any offensive remarks and or actions, particularly regarding ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

The Western Businesses and Taxpayers Association is not a political party but an association formed to gather information and garner support for a political party yet to be selected.

Warmest Regards
Dan Doherty
Vice President
WBTA

WBTA VP grumps at Buckets' Slump dump pump

Apparently I pumped the story of the dumping of Ernest Slump just a little too soon. WBTA VP Dan Doherty writes to assure me that there was in fact no internal coup, merely a slight snafu updating the website. (He didn't actually do it grumpily -- he was quite friendly -- but I couldn't resist the rhyme.)

He also asked that I inform my regular readers of the WBTA's position vis-a-vis Slump's controversial statements.

This letter is in response to the recent comments circulating regarding Ernie Slump. The Western Businesses and Taxpayers Association does not support any offensive remarks and or actions, particularly regarding ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation. David Crutcher and our Council have contacted Ernie to provide him with a forum to explain his comments. Our policy is one of inclusion and we deeply apologize to anyone this may have offended. I will keep you up to date of any new developments. We greatly appreciate you bringing this to our attention and I look forward to any comments or questions you may have. Warmest Regards Dan Doherty Vice President Western Businesses & Taxpayers Association. Email: vp@itstimetogo.ca

We thank Mr. Doherty for this clarification. Nonetheless, I have one concern. So far, four offensive remarks have been attributed to Mr. Slump.

1. his observation that "the White man" is better at killing than other races (here),
2. his stated desire to exclude Vancouver from a new western Canadian state (here)
3. a call for all Liberals to be executed (here),
4. his offer to point out Liberals to invading marksmen (here)

Now, given the WBTA's commitment to inclusion in matters of ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation, we can probably assume that:

1. white men will be thankful no longer to be considered especially homocidal.
2.  Vancouverites (an ethnicity? I suppose in a stretch) will be glad that the WBTA does not want to discriminate against them
   

I'm troubled, however, that the WBTA has chosen not to include Liberals among the protected minorities in their new regime.

This is surely an oversight that the WBTA will correct soon.

(Comments open.)

Slump dumped? Night of the long knives? Incompetence in the control room?

To judge from the webpage of the executive council at the WBTA there's been an enormous shake-up. All of the old councillors were gone, including controversial BC-chair, Ernie Slump! (On whom see here and here and here) Crutcher seems to have expelled them all and installed a new Saskatchewan chair!

(Or it could be a clumsy web-administrator. Stay tuned!)

UPDATE.  The dumping of Slump has been bumped!  Apparently Ernie Slump is still BC chair; the others councillors are returned to their positions!  What a difference 15 minutes can make!

Separatists on parade, 9: Harper once supported separatist Erik Gregson

Returning to Erik Gregson, who will be Chair of the founding convention for the WBTA (thumb-nail to the right).

As we have seen, Gregson came out as a separatist on his radio show in 2005. By this point he had an impressive history within the Reform, Alliance, and now Conservative Party, according to the profile on his WBTA page:

Erik got involved in the Reform Party in 1993 and has since sat on various boards for both the Reform Party and the Canadian Alliance …

During his time in the Canadian Alliance, Erik has been a key planner, organizer and moderator of three Alberta Policy Conferences. …

Over the past 15 years Erik has been involved in numerous political campaigns for other candidates. On April 16, 2003 Erik was the Chief Returning Officer for Stephen Harper's nomination.

Given his resumé, it is not particularly surprising that in 2004 (only a year before coming out as a separatist), his prospects within the party were good enough that he sought the nomination of the federal riding of Macleod. Nomination would have guaranteed his election, since Macleod is one of the safest Conservative seats in the country.

In the end, however, Gregson lost the nomination to Ted Menzies, Macleod's current MP. He made a race of it though, especially after he was endorsed by Stephen Harper (who was then campaigning for the leadership of the newly merged Conservative party). Below is the story from Ft. Macleod's local paper, the Western Wheel from Feb. 18, 2004.

A few points deserve special attention. Harper's endorsement was regarded as unusual at the time, and is explained by Gregson's earlier support for Harper and by the fact that he was Harper's personal friend.

The Western Wheel from Feb. 18, 2004 (vol. 29, no. 29, via archive.org).

Other posts in this series:

• separatists on parade, 1: Erik Gregson
  
• separatists on parade, 2: WBTA claims to have ex-MPs
  
• Separatists on parade, 3: western separatists in the CPC
  
• Separatists on parade, 4: Erik Gregson to chair WBTA convention
  
• Separatists on parade, 5: Separatists bungle copy-and-paste
  
• Separatists on parade, 6: Erik Gregson comes out of the closet
• Separatists on parade, 7: WBTA BC Chair called for the execution of all Liberals
  
• Separatists on parade, 8: WBTA BC Chair comments on race war

Separatists on parade, 8: WBTA BC Chair comments on race war

The WBTA has appointed as their BC Chair a certain Ernest Slump. As we have seen (here), Slump has rather disturbingly called for the execution of all Liberal officials and ex-officials.

This isn't the only disturbing thing that he's written. Even worse are his views on race (thumb-nail below and to the right; google-cached here):

Given that Slump is a western separatist, no one should be surprised that he holds views that are politically incorrect. But regarding "the White man" as congenitally superior, as this passage shows, is more than a little worrying. That he includes within that superiority a belief that whites are better at killing their enemy is simply astonishing.

Now, the WBTA should feel uncomfortable having someone with these views as a member. To have him as their official face in British Columbia is unthinkable. Did they do any vetting at all of their council?

Update.  More about Slump at BCL: Slump doesn't want all of BC to separate, Vancouver will apparently be left out. 

Update 2.  The WBTA informs BCL that they are asking Slump for clarification.

Other posts in this series:

• separatists on parade, 1: Erik Gregson
  
• separatists on parade, 2: WBTA claims to have ex-MPs
  
• Separatists on parade, 3: western separatists in the CPC
  
• Separatists on parade, 4: Erik Gregson to chair WBTA convention
  
• Separatists on parade, 5: Separatists bungle copy-and-paste
  
• Separatists on parade, 6: Erik Gregson comes out of the closet
• Separatists on parade, 7: WBTA BC Chair called for the execution of all Liberals
  

Separatists on parade, 7: WBTA BC Chair called for the execution of all Liberals

The Western Business and Taxpayers Association council is slowly taking shape. They may, however, want to rethink their BC Chair, who at the moment is Ernie Slump. As BCL has pointed out, Slump is the publisher of Truckspeaker magazine (which has the dubious distinction of having the ugliest website I've ever seen).

He also has anger management issues, at least if he's the Ernest Slump who called for the execution of all Liberals a couple Christmas's ago. His whole screed can be seen via Google-cache, here, but here is the most unbalanced bit:

Now, I'm sure that there are many in this country whose heads are filled with voices saying bad things. But its best not to repeat what they say in public.

In the meantime one wonders whether the WBTA might not have another member in British Columbia who may be more suitable.

(The whole thing can be read in the screencap behind the thumb-nail to the right.)

Separatists on parade, 6: Erik Gregson comes out of the closet

Over at BCL, Ti-guy has a question about this passage from the profile of Erik Gregson at the new separatist site, the Western Business and Taxpayer Association (I've corrected the typo).
Ti-Guy's question:

Erik Gregson "lost belief" in Canada in 2005? Disregarding the mental retardation manifested in that statement, I wonder what was the final straw?

An interesting question, Ti-guy. What would be especially helpful is if we knew exactly when this happened. Or, better still, a copy of his statement. Something like this:

Now, as you can see the date of the program is June 18 2005. What was going on in mid-June 2005? Two names come to mind. Stronach and Grewal. Which (as you may have guessed) makes this blogger nostalgic for happy times.

Other posts in this series:

• separatists on parade, 1: Erik Gregson
  
• separatists on parade, 2: WBTA claims to have ex-MPs
  
• Separatists on parade, 3: western separatists in the CPC
  
• Separatists on parade, 4: Erik Gregson to chair WBTA convention
  
• Separatists on parade, 5: Separatists bungle copy-and-paste
  
• Separatists on parade, 6: Erik Gregson comes out of the closet

Separatists on parade, 5: Separatists bungle copy-and-paste

For those tuning in late, the new separatist organization the Western Business and Taxpayers Association has announced the date of its founding convention (here) and its chairman, ErikGregson.

Along with this comes a fancy new biographical sketch for the chairman -- well, actually not so new. As you can see in the graphic below, the new biography (here) is almost entirely a copy-and-paste from Gregson's profile at the Radio Freedom Network (here).

I say almost completely because as you'll see some (but not all) time periods have been recalculated, and a new paragraph on Gregson's conversion to separatism has been added.

The result is not quite confidence inspiring. Several minor errors were introduced into the copy:

• Gregson is said to have "strated" a business in the second paragraph
• Gregson has been turned from a "cub scout leader" into a "club scout leader" in the final paragraph
• "separatist" is misspelt (you'd think that a separatist group could spell this word correctly!)

Those last two mistakes are especially odd, given that this was surely a copy-and-paste. How do you insert mistakes like that in a copy-and-paste? Fat fingers, I guess.

Now, typographical errors are easy to make, and criticizing them is pretty lame.

Given, however, that Alberta separatists a few years ago expressed the ambition for Alberta to acquire nuclear submarines, the question Albertans have to ask themselves is whether these are the fingers you want near the trigger?

Update.  Big City Liberal notes another screw-up: the WBTA seems to have lost its policy chair.

Other posts in this series:

• separatists on parade, 1: Erik Gregson
  
• separatists on parade, 2: WBTA claims to have ex-MPs
  
• Separatists on parade, 3: western separatists in the CPC
  
• Separatists on parade, 4: Erik Gregson to chair WBTA convention
  
• Separatists on parade, 5: Separatists bungle copy-and-paste
  
• Separatists on parade, 6: Erik Gregson comes out of the closet

President Bush and the Flying Shoe: The True Story

Separatists on parade, 4: Erik Gregson to chair WBTA convention

The new separatist group, the Western Business and Taxpayers Association, apparently met yesterday to choose their council.  Only rumours, so far. But high-level sources have sent me the following screenshot, which says that their convention will be held on January 30-31st and its chairman, Erik Gregson (whose involvement with this group we've already noted here).

It's already been noted that the WBTA council is still secret, with only the name of its executive director David Crutcher known (here).  Gregson's email in the above screenshot is policy@itstimetogo.ca, so we can assume that he will be the group's policy chair.

More as it comes in.

Update.  The convention page has now gone live here.

Other posts in this series:

• separatists on parade, 1: Erik Gregson
  
• separatists on parade, 2: WBTA claims to have ex-MPs
  
• Separatists on parade, 3: western separatists in the CPC
  
• Separatists on parade, 4: Erik Gregson to chair WBTA convention
  
• Separatists on parade, 5: Separatists bungle copy-and-paste
  
• Separatists on parade, 6: Erik Gregson comes out of the closet

The official pacman chart

Separatists on parade, 3: western separatists in the CPC

Conservatives were outraged two weeks ago when the Liberals and NDP planned to form a coalition and the Bloc Quebecois pledged to support if for 18 months. Indeed, Harper himself, in his five-minute televised address to the nation on December 2, mentioned “separatists” four times: “This is no time for backroom deals with the separatists”.

In response Saskatchewan blogger, Buckdog, asks an important question: If Harper And The Conservatives HATE Separatists ... (the Quebecois version) ... Why Don't They Also Condemn Western Separatists? A fair question, as I'm sure anyone would admit.

Another question. Wouldn't it be best if the Conservative Party restricted its membership to non-separatists? A case in point: David Crutcher is the Executive Director of the new separatist Western Business and Taxpayers Association. His profile on the WBTA's website happily identifies him as federal Conservative. Here's the screenshot:
Nor is Crutcher the only one.

• A few years ago, Gord Stamp was forced to resign as campaign manager to Alberta MP Peter Goldring when it was revealed that he'd been espousing separatism on the internet.
  
• In 2001, two Alliance MPs attended the founding convention of the Alberta Independence Party (on which here)
• Bert Brown (who was at that time one of Alberta's "senators-in-waiting") attended the same meeting, actually spoke to its delegates,* and is quoted as wishing them "every success" (reports here and here and in many places in the printed press). Harper appointed Brown to the senate in July, 2007.

The question, then should not be whether or when Harper will criticize western separatists. It's whether and when he'll kick them out of his own party.

*Re-reading press reports of Brown's participation at the AIP's founding convention, it is not clear whether Bert Brown spoke; over here, Jane Morgan, the wife of the man who became leader of the party at that convention, insists that this did not happen.

Other posts in this series:

• separatists on parade, 1: Erik Gregson
  
• separatists on parade, 2: WBTA claims to have ex-MPs
  
• Separatists on parade, 3: western separatists in the CPC
  
• Separatists on parade, 4: Erik Gregson to chair WBTA convention
  
• Separatists on parade, 5: Separatists bungle copy-and-paste
  
• Separatists on parade, 6: Erik Gregson comes out of the closet

separatists on parade, 2: WBTA claims to have ex-MPs

Over at the Blogging Tories a few days ago, Western Separatist David Crutcher claimed to have raised oodles of cash and that his new separatist group counts former MPs among its supporters (here's a screen cap):

The BTs, to their credit, were mostly unenthusiastic.   In any case skepticism is in order.   The claim to fund-raising cash is a little bit hard to believe, but let's leave that aside, since it is unlikely that the WBTA's funding will ever be transparent enough that this could be proven or disproven.

The claim to have the support former MPs, on the other hand, is striking, since these should eventually come forward to support the group. Who could they be?

Two names that come to mind are Myron Thompson and Darrel Stinson, who caused a bit of a scandal back in 2001 when they attended the founding convention of the Alberta Independence Party. (See an old essay of Andrew Coyne criticizing them for this archived here.)

Regardless of whether these are the former MPs who support Crutcher's new group, it'll be interesting to hear who else is involved in this new separatist group.

Other posts in this series:

• separatists on parade, 1: Erik Gregson
  
• separatists on parade, 2: WBTA claims to have ex-MPs
  
• Separatists on parade, 3: western separatists in the CPC
  
• Separatists on parade, 4: Erik Gregson to chair WBTA convention
  
• Separatists on parade, 5: Separatists bungle copy-and-paste
  
• Separatists on parade, 6: Erik Gregson comes out of the closet

separatists on parade, 1: Erik Gregson

Erik Gregson has recently pledged his support to the new western separatist group, the Western Business and Taxpayers Association. Here is the announcement from the WBTA site:

Who is Erik Gregson? He is one of the hosts of the Calgary talk-radio show, Freedom Radio, together with Craig Chandler (a long-time Crutcher associate). Here is his biography:

Now that he's come out as a separatist, it'll be interesting to see what role he plays in the soon to be announced WBTA council.

Other posts in this series:

• separatists on parade, 1: Erik Gregson
  
• separatists on parade, 2: WBTA claims to have ex-MPs
  
• Separatists on parade, 3: western separatists in the CPC
  
• Separatists on parade, 4: Erik Gregson to chair WBTA convention
  
• Separatists on parade, 5: Separatists bungle copy-and-paste
  
• Separatists on parade, 6: Erik Gregson comes out of the closet

New contest: help the separatists pick a council!

Regular readers of BCL found a startling headline this morning: New Western Separatist Organization Consists Of One Guy! He's referring, of course, to the new Western Business and Taxpayer's Association", which so far as anyone can see, has only one member, its executive director David Crutcher, a Calgary businessman active in provincial politics.

The rest of the council, as you can see from the screenshot below, is TBA.

It would be churlish of us not to pitch in with the helping hand by holding a contest to pick a council for them. There are, as you can see, eight positions vacant. You can nominate someone for each position, or some of them. Or you can make up your own new positions and pick who is best to fill it! Prizes for the best suggestions!

Tick, tick, tick

There were lots of political surprises last week. One thing, however, that was totally predictable was the creation of another separatist group, this time the Western Business and TaxPayers Association, whose website is charmingly called www.itstimetogo.ca.  

Several points occur.  First, one wonders whether there is any irony in their choice of .ca as their top-level domain? (If separation ever occurs they'll have to give up their website!) 

Secondly, one notices that the website (screencap below) promises an operational website by Monday, Dec. 8 (today).  Now, there are a few hours left before this promise goes unfulfilled. But it looks very much like Crutcher and his colleagues are going to miss their self-imposed deadline.

Update. It looks like they met (just!) their deadline: a new site is up this morning, here.

Did someone say perogies?

A metaphor for last week's events

Pay equity and Harper

Antonia Zerbisias points out that the Harper government has consistently undermined women:

during his first minority government, casualties included a national childcare plan, 12 out of 16 Status of Women Canada (SWC) offices, the court challenges program, which helped women and minorities fight for their rights, the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL), a research and advocacy group, and the very word "equality'' from the SWC mandate.

…

Then, last week, when Finance Minister James Flaherty delivered his ill-fated financial statement, he fired another blast at women's rights.

KABOOM! to pay equity, the idea that women's work is just as valuable as men's.

That despite Section 11 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, which states that, ``It is a discriminatory practice for an employer to establish or maintain differences in wages between male and female employees employed in the same establishment who are performing work of equal value.''

But, in seven convoluted sentences, Flaherty not only misrepresented the concept of equal pay for work of equal value, he dumped the onus on obtaining fair and equitable wages on unions.

As if every sewing machine operator and restaurant dishwasher has access to collective bargaining.

h/t BCL.

A better way forward: Harper should resign as CPC leader

Not to be one to sign out of tune, but I'm dubious about the coalition and its stability. The Liberal Party is between leaders and the Bloc's goals can change quickly. I doubt whether it will last more than a few months and am concerned that it might become the basis of a Dolchstoßlegend for Alberta and the Conservatives, somewhat the way the NEP.

A better solution would be for Harper to step down as leader of the CPC and for the Conservatives to choose an interim leader to face Parliament on Monday.

Why the RCMP dumped the CHRC wifi case (70.48.181.203)

The RCMP has decided to drop its investigation of allegations that the CHRC had hacked the wifi of an Ottawan woman. The RCMP itself has made no announcement, but the woman in question was interviewed by Joseph Brean of the National Post (here):

In a phone interview on Thursday, the woman said the RCMP told her they do not have proof her account was hacked, nor proof that it was not, and to investigate further would involve going after technical data from a website based in the United States, stormfront.org, which they said is not possible.

What does all this mean? The basic problem is that the evidence did not sustain the accusation. To review:

1. CHRC investigator Dean Steacey logged into Stormfront.org using the handle "jadewarr" several times, including on Dec. 8, 2006, the date of the alleged wifi-hacking.
   
2. One of the other times that "jadewarr" logged-in at Stormfront was on Sept. 15, 2006, when he posted the one-and-only message that this account ever posted there (you can see the screen capture of that post here). The IP used to post was 70.48.181.203 (see #4, below).
3. After it became known that "jadewarr" was Steacey's account, however, Stormfront administrator OdinPatrick publicly outed the account (see screen captures here), declaring both the IP that was used to register jadewarr (65.93.75.6) and the "IP used to post" (70.48.181.203).
4. Since jadewarr had only ever posted one message (see #2, above), the IP use to post (70.48.181.203, #3) must have been for the message of Sept. 15, 2006.
5. In March 2007, Marc Lemire emailed Stormfront founder and convicted terrorist Don Black to request jadewarr's Lemire asked Black for the "email address, IP-address, hostname, and access" of the jadewarr account (see Lemire's motion, here, and Black's affidavit, here). Apparently Lemire requested this information without specifying a date.
6. Black informed Lemire that jadewarr's IP was 70.48.181.203 (see Black's affidavit paragraph iv, here).
7. The IP that Black reported (70.48.181.203, above, #6) was the same one that jadewarr used to post on Sept. 15, 2006 (above, #3).
8. Given that Black does not specify a date that jadewarr had used this IP (see #5 and #6, above), he must be giving the IP used for the post of Sept. 15, not the one used to log-in on Dec. 8: the software that he was using, vBulletin, only records the IPs of posts, and not those for log-ins (here).
9. Lemire apparently did not realize that the IP was from the wrong date. On the basis of Black's information filed a motion to subpoena Bell to provide information about the IP for Dec. 8.
10. In a CHRT hearing of March 25, 2008, a Bell technician testified that 70.48.181.203 (which jadewarr had used on Sept. 15) was assigned to an Ottawa woman on Dec. 8, 2006, the day on which jadewarr logged into Stormfront (obviously using some other IP).
11. Once this became known, a theory was elaborated to explain how jadewarr might have accessed 70.48.181.203 on Dec. 8, a theory that including the allegation of wifi-hacking.

So, why did the RCMP drop the investigation? Because the evidence as presented didn't sustain the allegation, and a closer look at the evidence wasn't possible given jurisdictional issues.

Other posts relevant to this controversy:

• The spy who didn't shag my wifi 1: background
  
• The spy who didn't shag my wifi 2: someone else notices Jadewarr
• The spy who didn't shag my wifi 3: when exactly did Steacy/jadewarr have 70.48.181.203?
  
• The spy who didn't shag my wifi 4: theoretical possibilities
  
• The spy who didn't shag my wifi 5: Lemire's motion for jadewarr's IP
  
• The spy who didn't shag my wifi 6: what did Lemire ask Black about jadewarr?
  
• The spy who didn't shag my wifi 7: the right IP on the wrong date
• The spy who didn't shag my wifi 8: the technician's testimony
• The spy who didn't shag my wifi 9: Black affidavit
• The spy who didn't shag my wifi 10: the software records posts not log-ins

On the Indian Residential Schools' Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Over at Somena media, Meaghan has a guest post critical of the the Indian Residential Schools' Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It's worth checking out.

Unforeseen problems with Obama win

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Not a word of English