CAPRU is back, and this time it's bilingual!
Mindelle Jacobs addresses the latest Conservative schadenfreude:
Despite the widely varying ideological positions, the NGOs agreed that illicit drug use is a public health issue and that the approaches to address the problem should be based on evidence and the mitigation of harm.
It doesn't mesh with Stephen Harper's plan for mandatory minimum sentences for drug dealers, of course. Hard-core gangsters won't be deterred by such penalties. For one thing, the drug kingpins are rarely caught. Will the Tories ever learn?
Jonathan Kay is Godwin's law exemplified.
The difference between the two begins with the way Jews are depicted. Look at the images on this page. The one on the left, a poster published in German-occupied Poland in 1941, exemplifies the Jew-hatred spouted by the Nazis. (The caption reads: "Jews and Lice: They cause typhus.") The image on the right, a poster circulated on Canadian campuses this week to mark "Israel Apartheid Week," typifies the more recent variant.
Aside from the obvious -- the language and style of illustration -- what crucial difference do you notice?
Perhaps that one is a racist attack against a significant subpopulation (the Jews) by a nation-state and the other is criticizing the actions of a nation-state towards significant subpopulation (the Palestinians). As an analogy, Jonathan Kay's argument would also imply that opposing apartheid in South Africa meant you clearly hate white people.
Bruce Arthur
But it was the way Cherry presented his case that left the usual sour taste. Besides the usual anti-European bile -- which should perhaps be toned down after Cherry's attempt to build a junior team in Mississauga without Europeans back in 1999, resulting in a team that won 16 games in three seasons -- Cherry showed a montage of soccer players celebrating, and as it showed a group of four enthusiastic black players dancing close to the camera, Cherry said, "Now watch this, look at this -- this is what we want our hockey players to act like?"
The charge of racism has been thrown at Cherry over his treatment of Europeans and Francophone Canadians, but because those aren't traditionally identifiable minorities, the charges don't seem to stick. But intentionally or not, this looked for all the world like a more familiar brand of racism.
André Pratte fait trop confiance à Harper.
La crise financière étant d'origine américaine, la récession étant planétaire, la capacité pour nos gouvernements de limiter les dégâts est très limitée. Reste que dans la mesure où ils peuvent dépenser pour stimuler l'économie, ils doivent le faire de façon intelligente, ciblée et surtout rapide. C'est pourquoi le gouvernement Harper a eu raison de mettre en place un «financement spécial central» de 3 milliards. Ce fonds sera géré par le Conseil du Trésor. Les ministères qui ont dans leurs cartons des projets prêts à démarrer pourront obtenir dès maintenant le financement nécessaire, sans attendre l'approbation par le Parlement des crédits supplémentaires, fin juin.
Lawrence Martin acknowledges his love for the systematic media bias towards conservatism in Canada, and prays that somehow the media can regain it's power to force ideology on Canadians through monopoly.
So much of his conservative world is under siege. The National Post, the newspaper Mr. Black founded a decade ago, is hobbled, demonstrably un-national, struggling to survive. The fleet of newspapers that he bought and that, with the Post, helped change the face of Canadian journalism are now part of a CanWest Global empire in dire financial condition. The conservative creed he undergirded with his baroque forays is threatened in Canada and reeling in America.
Writing in the Post, one of the editors lamented on the weekend that "Conservatism, as we know it, is dead." Many starboard voices south of the border offer similar sentiments. In their dire thoughts, they forget about the cycles, how the teeter-totter of time is likely to relieve them of their perceived perdition.
James Travers:
Two of the many political laws are immutable. One is that principles are more flexible than interests. The other holds that a distraction is the next best thing to a solution.
Britain's resolute Margaret Thatcher proved the utility of diversions in 1982 when she sent the fleet south to lay a licking on the "Argies." Rescuing the Falkland Islands from Argentina was such a flag-waving success that voters forgave the wrenching changes she was imposing at home and handed Conservatives another victory.
Stephen Harper doesn't have islands with more sheep than shepherds to conquer. He does have the sort of economic problem that pummels ruling parties.
You won't see a tear from me when Canwest stops publishing it's daily propaganda rag and I think many other Canadians agree with me.
1h