High Park, Toronto

Toronto's huge, protected tract of parkland called High Park is well worth the respect it is due. It has a long and storied history. And as a parkland within the greater confines of a large and growing metropolis, it represents a natural escape existing within a concrete jungle.

As a natural resource located close to the waterfront of Lake Ontario, extending upward from there, and readily accessible by anyone who lives in the city who might wish to touch with nature from time to time it is an invaluable treasure.

So, that a group of Mohawk Warriors have set up a protest camp in a section of High Park is explicable only because they oppose the ravaging after-effects of off-road cyclists using the natural resource of a huge inner-city park as a social gathering point for avid outdoor enthusiasts. Enthusiasts who do not really respect nature for what it has to offer. Theirs is not a vision of nature to be admired and to serve as inspiration.

Rather the young people who use the park as a venue for riding their machines on inclines and jumps to contest their agility and abilities as stunt riders disparages nature. For in the end the use to which they put the park is one that destroys the natural lay of the land, and it despoils the beauty to be seen there.

The BMX tracks that have been built in the park as a venue for bored inner-city youth looking for thrills corrupts the original purpose of a natural parkland.

This is not, of course, the reason that the Mohawk Warriors have set up a protest within the park. Their outrage is manifested by what they claim to be an insult to a cemetery. To the memory of ancient aboriginals who once roamed the terrain and whose bones may have been laid to rest within the park confines.

For them it is a matter of respecting an ancient burial site. That may have resonance with certain sensibilities, but it should not necessarily be the entire reason for protesting the misuse of High Park's auspices.

The trails within the park should be left for the recreational use of walkers, runners, those who enjoy the opportunity to be within a natural forested setting. To witness the beauty of nature. To take advantage of the opportunities given them to see mature trees and forest plants in various seasons.

It could be used perhaps for casual bicycling as well. But certainly not for the destructive use of altering the terrain for the purpose of giving adventurous thrills to those who have no appreciation whatever of nature's heritage to the people who live within the city.

UWO Academic Funding

"[We want] to express our alarm over the disclosure that two Islamist organizations - the Muslim Association of Canada and the [Virginia-based] International Institute of Islamic thought - will provide most of the $2-million in funding for a new Chair in Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Theology at Huron University College. While we commend the College for undertaking to 'make a substantive contribution to understanding of Islamic thought and Muslim identity in pluralistic societies' through the establishment of this Chair, we think it is extremely ill-advised of the College to accept funding from any organization implicated in violent jihad.

"We think that it is reckless for Huron University College to accept up to $1-million in funding from a tainted organization like the IIIT. Would the College have accepted funding from the IRA for a chair in Irish studies? We think not." Letter sent by 26 faculty alumni and friends of the University of Western Ontario to Trish Fulton, interim principal at Huron University College, affiliate of University of Western Ontario.

With good reason. There are precedents, of course. Saudi Arabia used a good whack of its oil revenues to establish Wahhabist madrassas in countries around the world, from Afghanistan to Canada and points in between. In those madrassas, mullahs taught their students the fundamentals of Islam, encouraging the obligation of jihad and martyrdom for the cause. It was institutions like those that inspired today's terror groups, including al-Qaeda.

The Muslim Brotherhood has its tentacles all around the world, including cells in Canada. It portrays itself as a respectable, law-abiding group whose only purpose and function is furthering the honourable cause of restoring Islam to its former glory. Its Egyptian founder, Hassan al-Banna, wanted to promote Islamic piety; he rejected the influence of the secular West in the Middle East, advocating a return to Islam.

That was in 1928. His ideas motivated many devoted Islamists to broaden his vision, and pick up on his urging of Muslims to undertake holy war as a defensive strategy to an offensive one. The Brotherhood excelled at assassinations of political figures. It had a huge influence on Yasser Arafat, spawned Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and had great influence with al-Qaeda leaders.

The Muslim Association of Canada links itself to the Muslim Brotherhood. On its website: "MAC adopts and strives to implement Islam ... as understood in its contemporary context by the late Imam, Hassan Albanna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood." The Brotherhood, which aims to restore Islamic laws and values in the face of growing Western influence.
Although the Muslim Brotherhood has influenced a generation of violent, radical groups, MAC spokesman Yaser Haddara told the news conference (on instituting Sharia law in Ontario) without blinking an eye, that the group's core values are consistent with Canadian values. MAC states on its website that "We do have a firm belief that our philosophy and vision are superior to others and we strive to ensure that they are actualized." How MAC will "actualize" the Muslim Brotherhood "philosophy" in Canada is not elaborated." Tarek Fatah - Chasing a Mirage; the Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State

The answer to that question posed by Tarek Fatah seems to be held within this initiative to fund a Chair in Islamic Studies at the University of Western Ontario, in London, Ontario.

Hassan Al-Banna envisioned Middle East Muslim states re-affirming their Islamist fundamentals. Eschewing the growing trend toward Westernizing their outlooks and priorities, abandoning their Islamic bona fides. His current-day followers advocate for a slow and steady infiltration into Western society with a view to substituting Western values and thought with those of Islam.

A 1991 memorandum by a member of the Muslim Brotherhood Shura Council proposed that Muslim settlement in Canada and the United States be considered a "Civilization-Jihadist Process". "The MB must understand that their work in America is kind of a grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house."

We are sleep-walking helpfully to the fulfillment of the Muslim Brotherhood agenda.

Accessories To The Crime

The Islamic Republic of Iran gleefully noted the street-murder of 16-year-old Yazdan Ghiasvand Ghiasi last year, shot in Ottawa as he was sitting in a vehicle, and then tossed out of the car as it sped off. Purportedly a drug deal that went wrong. What kind of country is Canada, that such dreadful things occur in the street, a young boy of Iranian extraction so heartlessly murdered, Iran thundered, sanctimoniously scandalized.

Well, it would seem to ordinary Canadians that there might be something awry with the seeming inclination of immigrants with a Muslim background, who seem to turn, disproportionate to their numbers in society, to crime. This is obviously a response that would never pass the lips of Canadian diplomats, nor for that matter anyone who respects the dictionary of political correctness.

Yet Muslim youth appear drawn to the easy pickings and the adventurous excitement of crime on a micro- and macro-level, from drug dealing to murder, in greater numbers than their demographic seems to warrant. Young Ghiasi was shot in the heart by Mohamed Webbe; the dispute evidently occasioned over a bag of drugs, on a residential downtown street.

One shot killed the boy, hitting him directly in the heart; the other went skyward, shattering the sunroof of the blue Nissan Maxima involved in the tragedy. Two others, Abdulhamid Wehbe and Mohamed Webbe are also charged, with 2nd-degree murder, while Mohamed fled Canada; all in the family, as it were.

The trial of 18-year-old Zakaria Dourhnou has just concluded. He is a young man, previously in trouble with authorities and on probation, which included the court-ordered condition that he was meant to live with his mother who would monitor his activities. His mother, evidently having little respect for such conditions, allowed her son to live elsewhere, and paid for his apartment.

And it was in the parking lot of that apartment that the murder vehicle ended up. Mr. Dourhnou was instructed to clean up the incriminating evidence, as a gesture of friendship. And he was not averse to doing just that; police watched as Dourhnou and another teen, Khaled Webbe, obligingly set about cleaning up gunshot residue and blood.

"Mr. Dourhnou was acting for a friend in order to defeat a criminal investigation, by destroying evidence. the relevance of DNA evidence is well known ... It was obvious by the state of the vehicle that a serious altercation had taken place", stated Ontario Court Justice Celynne Dorval, in arriving at her decision.

A year in prison, over the 135 days already spent behind bars awaiting trial, a ban from possession of any weapons for five years, probation for three years. And his lawyer is outraged.

Democratic Deficit

In Ivory Coast, the latest of the African countries, following Kenya and Zimbabwe, where the president set aside the results of a democratic election to inform the country that he has no intention of stepping down and the opposition can go stuff itself, chaos has resulted, with government and opposition forces both on a tribal-slanted slaughter mission. In Ivory Coast, French intervention will shortly settle the question of legal, democratic order.

But the thousands who have died in an orgy of hated and revenge as the two sides seek advantage in the contested election fall-out will remain a blot on democratic procedure. Democracy is new to Africa, but deadly tribal antipathies leading to mass slaughter most definitely are not. When the two are harnessed, the newer social-political convention is supposed to surmount the traditional war-mongering disagreements between clan and tribe, but there is a long way yet to go on that path.

There are reminders on occasion that even in Canada, where the population does not resort to primitive violence and democracy has as long a pedigree as the country has existed, people still react on occasion with a vestige of the same blistering entitlements leading to bitter dissent. One might suppose if this were to occur anywhere in Canada, it is likelier to happen in a rural setting, rather than an urban one.

Urbanites are more shall we say - urbane, sophisticated in their thinking and reactions; cosmopolitan in their understanding of the social contract. While rural dwellers are understandably closer to the land, so their inherited and primal instinctiveness is instructed through a dimly recalled and subliminal acknowledgement of collective memory known as the survival instinct.

All this to say that in the recently-concluded provincial nomination in the Carleton-Mississippi Mills riding for the Progressive Conservative Party, the riding association itself was taken aback when a well-planned campaign with more support locally than they might have realized existed was successful in finally unseating 69-year-old veteran MPP Norm Sterling.

One might ask, isn't 34 years at the public trough as a politico long enough for anyone? When might someone of his vintage and his experience consider it is time to move aside and allow others to take up where he left off? Particularly when many in the riding may not consider theirs to be a fiefdom; rather a riding in need of someone who will become actively engaged in presenting their interests at Queens Park.

Mr. Sterling's opponent, Jack MacLaren, a West Carleton farmer and libertarian, will now join his next-door colleague Randy Hillier who represents the riding of Lanark-Frontenac Lennox and Addington where both of them may partner in tilting at frustrating-landowner windmills. As for Mr. Sterling's ire; longevity in a political contest is never an assurance of easy victory, nor should it be.

The manner in which a politician acquits him/herself on behalf of his/her constituents is the ruling order here. It is a democracy, after all, that we celebrate and live within. And which civil people recommend for other nations so they too may realize fairness and justice. And to be completely fair, the grudging acceptance of the inevitable by Mr. Sterling fits him exceedingly ill.

In that the ill grace that he evinced in his unwillingness to accept that the electorate chose a replacement rather than allow him to continue as their representative shines a nasty light upon his character. His grumpiness in alluding to his continued challenge to maintain a seat by running as an independent, his public flirtation with abandoning his party during the election by voting for another party should a personal friend decide to run, does him no credit.

What he does demonstrate is a vain conceit in his belief that he alone represents the needs of the area's constituents, and his cantankerous rejection of the idea that someone else may now be in a better position to do just that, reflects his own sad lack of principle.

The Debate

Escalating health costs hasn't been a matter brought up as a concern by any of the leaders of Canada's political parties during this 2011 general election, but on the other hand, Canada's health care system hasn't been entirely ignored. The NDP leader, Jack Layton, has been flaying the issue; not the costs involved with ensuring the continued feasibility of universal care, but laments about its perceived inadequacies.

It's one of those hot-button issues none of the party leaders really want to delve into in great detail, because in the details there are looming problems. Governments at every level have been throwing in increasing financial support to desperately attempt to shorten wait times. Drug costs, once identified as the single most costly item in health care, have latterly assumed somewhat less of a burden with pharmaceuticals' lapsed patents.

But as the country ages and the population becomes more weighted with its elderly demographic, the health care system will be put to an increasingly difficult test. It's a grim scenario no one really wants to tackle; it's in the league of items too serious to reflect upon during the course of an election campaign when quick and easy items can be addressed for maximum effect.

Now David Dodge, formerly governor of the Bank of Canada has forecasted some of the problems inherent in the groaning health care public non-debate in a report titled Chronic Healthcare Spending Disease. Universal health care is expensive, and costs are steadily rising. They could continue rising, according to Mr. Doge, to represent 19% of the national economy in two decades.

The current levels of available universality can only be maintained in the future with the imposition of new taxes, or the curtailing of services; neither being appealing solutions. Other options include a form of co-payment by individuals for services received; de-listing services to be paid for by consumers or private insurance suppliers; development of privately funded systems for those able and willing to pay.

Goodbye universality.

Even Mr. Dodge balks at those 'options'. "The Canadian public will not live with denial of service. We cannot do that again." Cutbacks in spending and services would be suicide for any political party that might suggest it, and worse for any party in government that would initiate them. Even at a time of restraint, even at a time of a huge national deficit and debt.

We value our health and the services attendant on them far too greatly.

The issue is one that a resounding 40% of Canadians place ahead of the economy and jobs as issues of importance to them. And, because it is such a vital issue, it may be one of the items taken seriously and addressed one-by-one by the leaders during their nationally televised debate. Because whoever assumes the Prime Ministership will be anticipating the 2014 federal-provincial accord renewal.

So with these concerns in mind, it really boggles that same mind to read that Gerald Savoie, former chief executive of the Montfort Hospital in Ottawa - actually a minor-league hospital in comparison with The Ottawa Hospital and its campuses - retired since 2009, last year received in his retirement $557,622, and is 'entitled' to the same for the current year. The hospital board agreed to these payouts as part of his contract.

Now isn't that rather rich? Under the agreement between Mr. Savoie and the hospital board, although the man will not have actively worked for the hospital for the past two years, he is considered to have 'earned' the handsome sum of $1.15-million as an entitled payout. In contrast, Ottawa Hospital chief executive Dr. Jack Kitts earned $642,071 in 2010, for actively executing the administration of the much larger hospital complex.

Dr. Rob Roberts as president of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute earned $612,037. These rich salaries represent the absolute top end of the highest-earning provincial civil servants in the National Capital. How can the Montfort's board of directors possibly justify glad-handing $1.15-million to a former chief executive?

Might this represent an anomaly or a symptom of the expense-malaise that afflicts the entire system?

What a Rich Province!

Ontario at one time was the most productive, wealthiest province of Confederation, considered the engine of the Canadian economy. It has fallen on hard, really hard times. With smoke-stack industries shutting down, unable to compete with the cheap production and equally cheap products coming out of China. With jobs declining steadily, and an economic downturn that has taken more than its share out of the province's economy.

And just incidentally, with Liberal-government-led policies that have permitted the cost of governing to rise exponentially, ensuring that public sector employment grew healthily while the private sector declined. And as the public sector employment bargained through its long established unions to clarify the valuable contributions to society of its paid work force, even while the private unemployed languished in near-poverty, expenses rose.

And continued to rise, as government made one loopy decision after another, investing great chunks of the provincial treasury into initiatives like ehealth and environmentally green energy choices that were so costly while rendering back nothing of real value that taxes had to rise, even though a health tax was seen as anathema and even while a pre-election promise was shattered.

Leaving the province with an unhealthy deficit and an even sicker debt. How does a deficit of 16.3-billion sound, and a debt of 241.5 offer encouragement for the future? Imperilling, as it happens, the province's international credit rating.

The costs of hospitalization and medical and drug costs soared, as did education costs and other primary services to a large population, growing larger through immigration with its equally burdensome settlement costs. And the yearly 'sunshine list' of public employee salaries and entitlements continued to cause gasps of astonishment that salaries so large on the public tax base could be feasible with an overtaxed provincial treasury.

Public sector employees in the province earning over $100,000 blazed into the stratosphere with a record number of high-earning civil servants coming in at 71, 478 out of a total of 1.2 million people employed in Ontario's public sector. The province's total population is just over thirteen-million. So that one in eleven of the population is employed to service the remaining eleven, and paid handsomely for it.

Doesn't that seem rather excessive?

Political Interpretation

The NDP scorns the Conservatives' determination to lower corporate tax rates as "corporate hand-outs". The Liberals, who before they lost power, incrementally lowered the federal corporate tax rate under the Chretien government from a high of 30% to 23%. They were lowered subsequently, and when the Conservatives came to power they stood at 19.5%.

Under a Conservative plan to continue lowering the corporate tax rate to make Canada more competitive, the rate was steadily lowered to its current 16.5% which became effective at the turn of 2011. The Liberals now claim that if they win the election they'll raise the corporate tax rate back to 18%. Which will give them enough revenue to pay for some of their expensive electoral promises.

The Conservatives promise that if returned to power they'll further reduce the rate to 15% by 2012. The Ignatieff-led Liberals consider this to be absolutely revenue-ruinous. When Stephane Dion led the federal Liberals he pledged to cut corporate taxes below the then-proposed Conservative rate of 18.5%, arguing that lower rates represented powerful incentives for investing and job creation.

It would seem that leading economists believe that Canada is heading in absolutely the right direction lowering corporate tax rates. The co-ordinated plan between the federal and most provincial governments is to have a much reduced total corporate tax rate; combined to 25%, which would render this country an impressive investment opportunity.

The plan is considered to be revenue-neutral in its result of expanding the tax base. Some experts appear to estimate that $50-billion in new investment would be attracted in the space of seven years, helping enormously to grow the Canadian economy. Which means more employment opportunities and more Canadians back to work.

What is really paradoxical is the polarizing opinions of the Ontario provincial Liberal government and that of the federal Liberals. These are considered to be "competitive business taxes" by the Ontario Liberals, not "handouts for Canada's wealthiest corporations", as the federal Liberals characterize them.

The federal Liberals contend that cutting the corporate tax rate while the country is in deep deficit is insane. Contrarily, the provincial Liberals, while carrying a multi-billion deficit consider slashing the corporate tax rate, good business sense. "A more competitive business climate is creating more jobs and higher incomes for people", claimed the just-presented Ontario budget.

Which also adds that the improved business climate has directly led to a 7.4% increase in private-sector investments in infrastructure, machinery and equipment from 2009 to 2010. More than validating the Ontario government's decision to reduce general corporate income-tax rate to 12%, scheduled to be cut to 10% by 2013.

A move, claims Ontario's Finance Minister, that "will position Ontario as one of the most attractive jurisdictions in the industrialized world for new investment. Increased business investment will lead to more jobs and higher incomes for Ontarians."

So which is it then, great fiscal management into the future, or "corporate tax giveaways"?

Is the goal school achievement or teacher bashing ?

Re: the prior posts about Michele Rhee and Kevin Johnson.
What can we learn from Ontario?
Here is some sound research to indicate that working with teachers in capacity building produces better schools.  There is no research to show that teacher bashing produces improved schools.
ed.

OECD (2010). Strong performers and successful reformers in education: Lessons from PISA for the United States. Paris: OECD. 

It can be downloaded at:

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/32/50/46623978.pdf

Here is one sentence that sums up the gist of it:

To this end, the ministry drew a sharp contrast between its capacity-building approach to reform and the more punitive versions of accountability used in the United States, and, to a lesser extent, in Britain. They chose to

downplay the public reporting of results, and they emphasised that struggling schools would receive additional support and outside expertise rather than be punished or closed.

Despite the positive assessment, there are many gaps in Canadian provision for bilingual/EL students but there is nothing like the teacher-bashing that is going on in the US and SES disparities are much less than in the US. Also, the pendulum in reading instruction has not swung the way it has in the US--the vast majority of Canadian school systems would happily see themselves as adopting a "balanced" approach with a lot of emphasis on actual reading.

I also recently prepared a short paper for the Council of Europe that drew heavily on recent OECD findings. It is entitled:

 Putting the Evidence Back into Evidence-based Policies for Underachieving Students 

It can be found at:  http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/

Jim Cummins

The Reprehensible Dr. Charles Smith

"Your transgressions were egregious in nature, repulsive in result, caused irreparable harm to many innocent victims." Dr. Marc Gable, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario

This was the opinion of a panel of five doctors acting on behalf of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, who sat to determine the College's response as a disciplinary measure to be levelled against Dr. Charles Smith whose professional misconduct as a highly respected paediatric coroner was found so lacking in professionalism and ethics as to declare him incompetent, strip his medical license to practise in Ontario and fine him a paltry $3,650.

This is the man considered during the 1980s and 1990s to be Canada's leading expert in the field of child pathology, who was trusted to give testimony at trials for hundreds of cases involving the premature deaths of children, many of which featured family members being held responsible for those deaths. Dr. Smith's highly respected testimony led to many wrongful convictions.

This medical professional had no formal accreditation in forensic pathology, nor did he ever experience any manner of formal forensic training. Yet he never undertook to excuse himself, never explained that he lacked credentials and knowledge, was not fit to give the testimony that judges and juries relied upon to help them form their opinions that occasionally led to guilty verdicts. He has since been held responsible for providing inaccurate evidence at child-murder trials.

Because of Dr. Smith's invention of himself as a forensic pathology expert and his masquerading as a reliable medical pathologist, more than a few innocent people spent too many years incarcerated, having been found guilty of the murder of their children. Some of those convictions have since been overturned by the Ontario Court of Appeal after the Ontario chief coroner launched a 2-year investigation into Dr. Smith's work.

The discovery was made that in at least 20 of 44 autopsies which Dr. Smith performed, 20 had major problems associated with them. And twelve of those cases had concluded with charges or convictions against family members or caregivers or parents who were then held to be the cause of the deaths of children which were in fact occasioned by accident or through natural causes.

The College was disappointed that Dr. Smith ignored their order to him to present himself at the reprimand hearing. One of the mothers who had been convicted in the death of her infant and who had served fourteen years in prison for her 'crime' of which she was latterly exonerated did show up at the hearing, in the hopes she could confront her tormentor.

She obviously did not take fully seriously Dr. Smith's apology for the 'errors' he had made, and his humble statement that they had been unintentional in nature. The man was the very picture of hubris when he testified in court as an expert pathologist, knowing full well that his testimony would be damning to the accused, but he feels he has acquitted himself of responsibility by his apology.

His apology does nothing to restore the lost years, the public shame, the misery in which he left families through their traumatic experiences, but he is free to resume his life unfettered by any further concerns.

University Politics

"We didn't know if it was safe to leave. We were basically trapped in the room until Campus Safety sent more officers, who then made sure that students inside (the council chambers) could get to the elevators." Emile Scheffel, Ottawa Israel Awareness Committee.

Carleton University's student council has been deservedly commended for standing their ground, for refusing to submit to, and abandon their principles at the demand of a radical student group. The group determined to influence the student council's decision-making over a profoundly controversial and socially troubling political stance brought forward by the group, determined to de-legitimize a democratic society.

"I was very pleased with CUSA council. They were under a lot of pressure and they handled it well", Carleton's director of student affairs said, at the conclusion of the meeting which he was witness to. He is under some scrutiny for being somewhat slow in recognizing the oppressive state of safety perceived by those under verbal attack, fearing violence to follow.

At the conclusion to their meeting, Carleton University's student council had chosen not to emulate the ostracizing politics of the United Nations Human Rights Council in their decision, despite raucous intimidating pressure from the radical student group calling themselves Students Against Israeli Apartheid to indulge in a process of social sequestering of a single country held by them to be outside the pale of social acceptance.

This can only be construed as a truly refreshing turn of events, given the outsize success on previous occasions by the vociferous, bombastic, self-righteous anti-Israel group that has allied itself with national and international Jew-baiting groups seeking to disenfranchise Israel from its place of honour among civilized societies.

The motion before the Carleton University Students' Association council was to urge the university to divest its faculty pension plan from identifiable companies doing business with Israel. Thus placing financial pressure on those companies resolved to treat Israel no differently than any other investment opportunity; ultimately to force them in self-interest to fracture business ties.

Witnesses describe seeing a rowdy crowd numbering between 80 and 100, milling about in a hallway outside the Dunton Tower council chambers, awaiting the decision of the council deliberating the issue. Upon hearing of the decision reflecting the council deliberations, those in the crowd outside the chamber joined the handful inside by shouting and banging their outrage on walls.

Additional Campus Safety officers were finally called to protective duty so the chamber could be vacated and council members could leave in safety. The student council members had chosen to reject the motion, installing in its stead one that urged Carleton University to recognize ethically responsible investment opportunities; finding it unnecessary to single out any one country for condemnation.

"My personal safety was threatened repeatedly" one CUSA councillor, Hashem Hamdy, said. "Those opposing the motion were subject to intimidation, physical confrontation, and homophobic slurs inside and outside the council chamber. They don't seem to recognize that in a democracy, you don't have a licence to riot just because someone opposes what you say."

Bravo.

Ontario's Eco-Energy

The best laid plans of mice and men do often go astray. Particularly when they're half-cocked, haven't done the due diligence of basic background checks, too busy with an eye on the next election and appearing to be up to date on environmental issues. Worse, if a government feels it has free rein to use and misuse the treasury because its a renewable resource; more coming in on an annual basis, as one of the two things most assured in life: taxes first, then death.

Taxes, it seems to many people, will be the death of them. The death, at the very least, of their dreams of balancing their personal budgets. Of hoping to be able, at some time, to live in comfort, with enough of an income to pay for all the necessities of life, and with luck, a little left over. Not, however, if the current Provincial Government of Dalton McGuinty has anything to say about it.

And he and his government have been prattling off about green power and their handle on it.

Ontarians must be prepared to pay the full cost of energy in a responsible society, Dalton McGuinty announced. And in every home 'smart meters' were installed, at a whopping price that would be more than returned once the program went into effect. Where time-of-energy-use whomped the energy user with higher wattage fees to 'teach' us to use off-hours energy.

And costs keep rising, creating real pain in the pocketbooks of Ontarians. One of his pre-election promises was that Ontario would get rid of its coal-burning plants. We're still using them, because they're needed, since massive infrastructure and plant remediative costs relating to our nuclear installations still haven't resulted in trouble-free, reliable energy.

Ontario's energy production is so well managed that when we are stuck with huge amounts of excess energy the taxpayer doesn't get a break, but other provinces and adjoining states do, with energy costs so cheap, it's being given away.

And now the provincial Energy Minister, Brad Duguid, has announced that the plans so celebrated by his government amounting to a massive outlay of a $7-billion energy deal for wind power contracted through the Korean company Samsung with Ontario Hydro may not represent such a great idea after all.

"There isn't a lot of science in freshwater offshore wind. We need some time to review the science and we don't have it today."

Not a lot of science? Didn't check on available data before committing? Problem with windless days, and an inability to store wind power? Problem with protests, because people hate the sight of those massive wind towers and their sound? Problem with rumblings of health impacts with proximity of wind towers?

And what's this? After concentrating on assuring people that the province would buy from them their stored solar power generated through solar panels, encouraging commitment by farmers and enterprising urban self-starters to generate their own power by trust and investment, it's suddenly come up against a roadblock?

Hadn't considered the difficulties inherent in connecting all those rooftop solar panels to the power grid? Um, that is a problem.

It works in Germany, old sod, where thousands of home-owners have invested in solar panels for their roofs, and they seem to be able to add to the community's energy grid. Why there, not here? Have you enquired, looked into things from the angle of pursuing the matter in a country and within communities that have experimented with the issue to great acclaim?

So it's a no-go? Good work, Dalton, old boy. Can we expect more of the same before you troll for the polls?

That's Justice...

Ontario's disgraced former chief pathologist, Dr.Charles Smith, has officially had his license to practise medicine removed. It is amazing that someone so incompetent, who was very well aware of his lack of competence as a pathologist, was permitted to continue in a post that was so important. His supposedly expert testimony, supported by the trust placed in him as a provincial pathologist, ruined too many lives.

In the course of his professional activities he was responsible for the wrongful conviction of men and women whom he led judge and jury to believe had acted criminally in the deaths of young children. He effectively took away peoples' lives, branded them, through his uncompromising brand of pathological certainty (no pun here) that he had the uncorrupted answers to vexing questions of responsibility for unexplained deaths.

The province continues to pick up the pieces representing the disasters he brought to families. With convictions overturned after innocent people spent years in jail through their wrongful convictions, the province has paid out millions in compensation. As though money could somehow compensate for shame, grief and loss of liberty.

Dr. Smith was decidedly not the leading expert on pediatric forensic pathology he presented himself as, encouraged by his superiors who simply could not be bothered to ensure they had the right professional in the right place. Working out of the Chief Coroner's office he was responsible for inaccurate and often accusatory testimony in 20 investigations of death, which led to criminal charges against parents or other family members.

He believed implicitly in himself, despite his later admissions of insecurity. These professed misgivings never gave him pause to consider what kind of dreadful damage he was doing to other peoples' lives. In this he was horribly irresponsible, arrogant and deliberately oblivious to the harm he was imposing upon others.

He gave misleading evidence under oath. And now has been found guilty of professional misconduct and incompetence by the College of Physicians and Surgeons' disciplinary committee. Took long enough. The committee reached a deliberation that Dr. Smith was deserving of the "most severe" penalty possible, in officially revoking his license.

That will be the extent of the penalties imposed upon this disgusting caricature of a practising medical professional. "It's pretty difficult to charge someone for being incompetent", was the casual reflection of a lawyer. He has been and will continue to be sued in civil court by those whom his testimony caused such grief.

Any findings in favour of those who have sued this dreadful man have been settled by the Government of Ontario, the co-defendant in the suits.

"Buy More, Drink More"

At last, an Ontario politician addressing a subject dear to the hearts of all Ontarians. This is no taboo subject, it's a feel-good exercise, imbibing lustily to soothe one's feelings of having been hard done by through the political/social juggling act of the environment-obsessed Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty. We just think we're a trifle upset by soaring energy bills, thanks to Premier McGuinty's dedication to green measures.

He made a pledge to rid Ontario of its coal-firing plants, and he's doing it. Of course, the fact that scientists and environmentalists share those concerns and have been instrumental in designing cleaner-burning furnaces and more upgraded methods to scrub the burn-off to render it far less harmless to the atmosphere appears to be dismissively incidental. That a growing popular movement protesting the proliferation of wind farms is another inconvenience this government can deal with.

Taxpaying, voting families who struggle to make ends meet and are faced with increasing electrical bills will be absolutely thrilled out of their minds to discover that Ontario's Conservative leader Tim Hudack is prepared to address these problems, and go out of his way to placate the voters. Be happy, don't be concerned, give yourself a break and have a beer.

"I do hear from people who say 'come on, I can't even get a buck a beer in this province thanks to Dalton McGuinty's policies", divulged Mr. Hudak in a frank talk about how a government under his auspices would handle the rising cost of energy, food and whatever else irks the electorate. "A buck a beer" is on the horizon. That should salve many peoples' concerns.

Salve, but not solve the real issues. People will be able to afford their beer now, cheap! now, drink more!?! If they're sloshed out of their minds they'll be more likely to be less abrasively troublesome. Slashing the price of a case of 24 beers from the current $25.95 (bottle deposit not included) to a far more palatable $24.00 is certain to make a biiig difference in peoples' lives.

For one thing, we'll have an extra, disposable, luxurious $1.95 jingling around in our pocketbooks affording us the opportunity to splurge on other desirable items we cannot conceivably live without; bags of yummy potato chips, for example, to go with the beer. Or salted peanuts; take your pick, the choice is yours!

Why, parents concerned about the rising cost of milk can just do as the French once did, and dilute beer (instead of wine) to serve to their youngsters. The LCBO and the beer-producing industry will thank them for such graciousness and generosity in promoting the incidence of future alcoholics, to further burden the provincial health-care system.

Decisions such as these have far-reaching consequences, and Mr. Hudak is extremely perspicacious to understand that making beer more affordable will end up making life far more pleasant for the peasants.

Professional Brotherhood

A long tradition of police attending the funerals of other police forces across the continent has grown in popularity among police forces, as a way in which representatives of various police forces can express their solidarity with their fellow officers at last rites. There is little doubt that this compact can be construed as an heartfelt attempt to share a family's and a police force's shock and grief, for that is its purpose.

Those who work day-to-day on contract with law enforcement agencies have a special bond with one another; they are in the business of public protection and of upholding law and order. That is a responsibility writ large in their employment contract, one which society depends upon to ensure that order is maintained and safety ensured, while the law is upheld.

For all of these fine points to be accomplished requires dedication and courage.

It also requires that those who work in the profession trust and depend upon one another and are capable of working together in harmony to achieve the purpose at hand. All this being so, it is also an idealistic picture of how law enforcement works at the best of times. The worst of times is when police officers betray the trust their position holds them to.

It is often a fine line to tread; they are like anyone else in the public; individuals.

In the wake of the most recent public funeral service that took place in Toronto for police Sgt. Ryan Russell, a record crowd of 12,500 mourners drawn from across North America attended to pay their respects and present a solid front in the face of what they potentially encounter on a daily basis in the performance of their duty.

That number of men and women, duly uniformed, with unison of purpose present as quite a sight. To some onlookers it may resemble a militaristic parade of might and determination, one that many people might shy away from. There have been open critics voicing their repugnance at the display of what to them appears to be raw power in the guise of a parade of civil servants.

The "public spectacles" may put some people off, but on the other hand, it represents a reassuring display of professional and personal support and sober camaraderie to those who work behind the thin blue line. That line that separates the public from the socially disruptive red line where crime and criminals have the potential to impact on our safety and freedoms.

This is not done on the public dole. Those attending these funerals of slain police officers arrange their own time off from their duties as they may, and they pay for the expenses incurred for travel out of their own pockets or through union support. "The policing community is a big family. When we lose a police officer it strikes a nerve with all police officers", explained the president of the Toronto Police Association.

Who could logically argue with that? Criticism of the ceremonial and symbolic presence of large numbers of police officers paying their respect at such times of emotional duress may be inevitable, and it may be unfair, but freedom of opinion and articulating that freedom is one of the guarantees were are vouchsafed living in this society.

Everyone has their own opinion about a multitude of matters concerning the larger community. In this instance, it's fair to say that most people see the purpose and practicality of a professional 'family' mourning together to help ease the pain.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011 1:35 PM

The hearse carrying the casket of Toronto Police Sergeant Ryan Russell travels along Simcoe St. in Toronto during the funeral procession, January 18, 2011.

Global Warming, That's Why

Holy Cow, what's with the weather? The warmest year on record, we've been informed. Yes, it was a warm summer, although come to think of it, was it all that unusual? Hotter than usual, just slipped our notice. But summer is past, and we're heading toward winter, officially arriving on the 21st of December, the shortest day of the year, when we welcome the Winter Equinox. Oh, we don't welcome it? We're just stuck with it as a stubborn yearly event?



Because we anticipate welcoming Christmas shortly afterward and it must be white. And then the New Year, yes, of course.



Well, despite our groans about winter weather and impossible conditions for driving safely, and horrible heating bills, and all manner of existential challenges for warm-blooded creatures in a miserable cold Northern Hemisphere atmosphere, winter truly is here. We know, because the landscape has changed so dramatically.



The winds are cruelly whipping snowstorms into a frenzy of white-out conditions making it worth your life to embark on a trip without due consideration whether or not it's worth the effort.



Decidedly, it is not. Worth the effort, that is. Unless you're one of those hardy souls that welcomes adversity. Of the kind that has you stranded in the worst weather-driving conditions you've ever encountered, challenging you to survive the ordeal. Did you remember to pack along in the trunk of your winter-ready vehicle, a shovel, blankets, matches, flares, heavy-duty flashlight, full water bottle, munchies, and your cellphone?



Well, you most certainly should have. You should have paid the bucks it takes to avail yourself of the snowbound and icy road-worthiness of winter ice tires. Surely you did that, at the very least? No? I hate to say 'I told you so', but come on folks. Snow squalls that made visibility impossible and tested your driving abilities, stranded you along with hundreds of other hardy Canadian motorists along highway 402 near Sarnia, Petrolia and Western Lambton County.

Sarnia, Ont., searching for stranded motorists, Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2010. A state of emergency has been declared for Lambton County as snow stranded hundreds of motorists"

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  (Glenn Ogilvie/The Canadian Press) Hide caption

  A Griffin helicopter with 424 Transport and Rescue Squadron, Trenton, passes over Highway 402 near Sarnia, Ont., searching for stranded motorists, Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2010. A state of emergency has been declared for Lambton County as snow stranded hundreds of motorists

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  (Glenn Ogilvie/The Canadian Press) Hide ca
• Tino Villarreal, of Flint, Mich., walks away from a line of trucks after being stranded for almost a day in his cube van delivery truck on London Line, East of Sarnia, Ont., on Tuesday Dec. 14, 2010. Villarreal was given a sleeping bag and blanket by another trucker to keep warm through the night." id="image-2" width="620" height="348">
  (Glenn Ogilvie/The Canadian Press) Hide caption

  Tino Villarreal, of Flint, Mich., walks away from a line of trucks after being stranded for almost a day in his cube van delivery truck on London Line, East of Sarnia, Ont., on Tuesday Dec. 14, 2010. Villarreal was given a sleeping bag and blanket by another trucker to keep warm through the night.

• snowmobiler check on stranded motorists on highway 402 near Sarnia, Ont. on Tuesday Dec. 14, 2010, as seen from the vehicule of Colin Stewart, of Tottenham, Ont." id="image-3" width="620" height="348">
  (Colin Stewart for The Canadian Press) Hide caption

  An unidentified snowmobiler check on stranded motorists on highway 402 near Sarnia, Ont. on Tuesday Dec. 14, 2010, as seen from the vehicule of Colin Stewart, of Tottenham, Ont.

• Sarnia, Ont., on Tuesday Dec. 14, 2010. Hundreds of people have spent a cold night huddled in vehicles awaiting rescue along a snow-clogged stretch of highway in southwestern Ontario." id="image-4" width="620" height="348">
  (Glenn Ogilvie/The Canadian Press) Hide caption

  A line of trucks stranded in the snow wait for roads to reopen on London Line, a detour route for Highway 402, East of Sarnia, Ont., on Tuesday Dec. 14, 2010. Hundreds of people have spent a cold night huddled in vehicles awaiting rescue along a snow-clogged stretch of highway in southwestern Ontario.

No one, believe me, envies your experience. Waiting it out for over 24 hours for rescue. Hungry, thirsty, cold; utterly miserable and sick of being cooped up in your vehicle. And now London, Ontario targeted by that same miserable storm system that just doesn't feel like shoving off. People living in Eastern and Northern Ontario, who think they experience more than enough rough winter weather think of the London area as the Banana Belt. And it kind of is, in the summer.



Come winter, another story. Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, they get plenty of snow too. But this time your area of the province, thanks to the proximity of Lake Huron, and this year's La Nina, or is it El Nino, demonstrated the awesome power of Global Warming.

Tax-Paid Perquisites

There's no entitlements quite like the perceived freedom to ransack the public purse. It's as though that big pool of money, extracted from taxpayers is depthless, representing an opportunity of ongoing self-availment. The political elites and those who have been appointed because of their support of those who have attained the status of power, seem to feel that anything goes. That further emoluments are their due, over and above the extortionate salaries they gift themselves with.

It hardly seems to matter which political party is in the ascendancy. Something about human nature kicks in, so that those involved acquire the perception that their work on behalf of the electorate represents their very own sacrifice; their talent, experience and expertise is so unique that nothing quite suitably repays them for their efforts on behalf of the public weal. They are, therefore, quite justified in grasping more of whatever they can, to sweeten their recompense.

The current Liberal-led government of Ontario, under Premier Dalton McGuinty as good a case in point as any. Under previous governments it was largely Ontario Hydro that presented as an object lesson in bureaucracy gone wild, drunk on its own power and profligacy. That was before the current government stepped in to righteously declare it would prepare the province for green energy sources and gob-smacked Ontarians with the highest energy costs in the country.

Since the Liberals took office in the Province of Ontario in 2003, annual government spending rose precipitously, and now stands at $125.6-billion, representing a whopping 68.5% increase, over the last decade. Under this government Ontario saw free-wheeling spending with little-to-no-return on investment. The failed medical eHealth records as good an instance of tax-funding thrown to the winds as any. Benefiting those tasked with setting up the failed system, certainly not the funders.

Mismanagement has been legendary under this profligate-spending government that comes up with brilliant ideas for the sandbox, not the provincial legislature. Since the 2008 downturn, Ontario's net debt has increased 51% to $219.5-billion. Every man, woman and child in this province 'owes' $16,612 as a result of the province's poor administration, living beyond its, and our means through the deleterious choices and directions government has taken on 'our behalf'.

In a feeble attempt to 'manage' the debt, the government of Dalton McGuinty has introduced some measures of restraint, meant to placate any voters finally beginning to rear their outraged heads in realization of just how catastrophic this government's decision-making has been. A 5% reduction in the federal civil service; cuts in government agencies, even while this government continues to create new agencies to service their agenda.

But we are to believe they are sincere in a newly-recognized mission to more carefully regulate and scrutinize government spending. Perquisites to the elite among the bureaucrats, like sport season tickets, gym memberships and golf club dues, the gold standard for entitled MPPs and bureaucrats alike, are to be tightened, perhaps no longer to be (visibly) paid for by taxpayer dollars.

Because, simply put, it can be somewhat embarrassing when the government auditor goes in and has a good, close look at how taxes are being utilized. Where mean-minded, well-heeled government consultants felt free to bill for tea and muffins because their earnings of $2,750 daily were not generous enough to allow them to splurge out of their own pockets.

And where the executives of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, felt justified in billing the taxpayer for their nannies and their household expenses. Eleanor Clitheroe revisited. Some things just never change, do they?

"White Privilege"

Is there anyone more stridently anti-Jewish and anti-Israel than a Jew who dislikes his birthright and takes exception to the exceptionality of Jewish history, as a memorial to suffering and indiscriminate hounding of a people because they are different, chosen to represent the world's scapegoat incarnate?

From such establishment figures as the famed linguist Noam Chomsky whose antipathy to Israel is legendary, to secular Jewish groups that establish themselves within the Liberal-left atmosphere of 'blame the Jews', and to a young woman descended from Holocaust survivors who, to curry her leftist chops as an unequivocal Jew-hater, writes a thesis on the Jewish narrative.

A rather different one, from the perspective of someone who loathes everything representative of Jewish experience, history and lamentation. A student at University of Toronto whose thesis is titled "The Victimhood of the Powerful: White Jews, Zionism and the Racism of Hegemonic Holocaust Education". Which sets out to detail Israel as an apartheid state.

Hamas and Hezbollah would most surely, if they had knowledge of her scholarship, urge her to forward copies of her thesis for their delectation. They could then wrap one of her gifts and send it along to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who could carry it with him to the upcoming United Nations Human Rights Tribunal session as proof positive of all that he has claimed, representing sufficient reason for the Islamic Republic of Iran to proceed with its mission to destroy the pernicious Zionist entity.

Another copy could be presented to Mahmoud Abbas for his library, to complement his own doctoral thesis debunking the real, living, historical occurrence of the Holocaust as a useful Zionist myth to support the Jewish insistence that they're a people deserving of a state of their own, for only such a state, reserved primarily for those of Jewish origin, could represent a haven for Jews, safe there from pogroms and genocidal plans of extinction.

Some members of the Ontario legislature have taken umbrage at the scholarly work represented by Jenny Peto's thesis. And it has been condemned in the Ontario legislature as a "shockingly anti-Semitic" tract. Which, assuredly, it was meant to represent. But as it also represents freedom of expression, however hateful, the academic freedom is not to be questioned or stilled.

"I never could have imagined an MA thesis getting this much attention", claimed Ms. Peto, disarmingly. "But given my reputation as a vocal critic of Israel ... I am never surprised to be attacked by pro-Israel groups or pro-Israel politicians, for that matter. Students and researchers should be able to research and publish on controversial matters without the fear of attacks from the government."

This deliberately disingenuously smug Jew-baiter is feeling fairly self-important. And it helps her self-assurance that her left-liberal-credentialed stance has such support from the academic community. Little surprising, given that OISE is involved, and where a 'panel of experts' grill each Masters' candidate to defend their thesis to meet their high institutional standards.

"That's what freedom of expression is, that's how it ought to unfold. Condemnation is not really how expression is done", according to University of Toronto provost Cheryl Misak, not at all condescendingly.

And that's how bigots and anti-Semites gain credibility.

Passing Judgement

Roger Clement passed righteous judgement on society, and now society has returned the compliment. Ontario Court Justice Celynne Dorval summed up the attitude to justice in this particular case quite neatly, on behalf of the social contract and the citizens that respect it. Roger Clement of his own free will and arrogant decision-making violently disrupted what we as a society like to take for granted: peace and security.

In condemning the society of which he was an integral part, as a one-time and long-time federal civil servant, he chose to demonstrate in no uncertain terms just how he wished to divorce himself from the rest of society. He was described by friends as a 'generous man and principled humanitarian', but this generous man forsook his principled humanitarianism for violence in righteous indignation and bitter disagreement with this society.

His reasoned discourse as an anarchist was not sufficiently attended to by society disinterested in his message, so he resorted to shock tactics, an act of arson, resulting in the victory of a video and a statement much in the manner of terrorists who explain their suicide-murder pact with Islamism by such explanatory videos, justifying their actions and praising themselves as martyrs to their cause.

"Crimes of urban intimidation infringe on the rights of the majority" Justice Dorval informed Mr. Clement. He still does not, however, consider his action a crime but a legitimate protest. Obvious in his anguish over facing a four-year-prison term, reduced to three and a half years taking into account the months he has already spent incarcerated since his arrest following the $1.6-million blaze destroying the Royal Bank branch on Bank Street in May.

Mr. Clement complains that taxpayer-funded incarceration reflecting his judicial punishment for planning and carrying out a terror attack in Ottawa to highlight his malcontent-group's disaffection with society is money wasted. The ideological manifesto he authored, the pride of showmanship in posting it along with the arson video, speaks about his values, rejected by society.

Events such as the Vancouver Olympics and the G8 and G20 summits in Toronto were characterized by Mr. Clement and his colleagues-in-anarchy as assaultive acts against the citizens of the country. Many other people were of the opinion that massive amounts of public funding could be better spent on social housing, but they expressed their opinion in peaceful ways, not through violently subversive acts of sabotage.

It did not enhance the judge's opinion of him that he could manage only to utter regret for any 'inconvenience' his shockingly violent act caused. Not regret for the violence itself, nor the reasoning that led to it, nor his leadership role in the act. His pride would not permit that admission of wrong-doing, reflecting his continued commitment to his original course of action.

He will now have ample time to contemplate those values that led him to the conclusion that society needed his action to serve as a wake-up call to heed his message.

"Justice is Supposed to be Blind"

"I can't forgive them for a lot of the approaches they took to this, and I think numerous officers got unnecessarily injured, I think people from the general public got unnecessarily injured, I think everybody that was involved in this suffered injuries that could have been avoided had they just stuck to their training, stuck to their policies and stuck to the law. You know, the law doesn't discern colour of skin or ethnic background, and it's not supposed to. Justice is supposed to be blind." Karl Walsh, Ontario Provincial Police Association; excerpted from "Helpless", Christie Blatchford

Now there's a run-on sentence for you; fairly indicative of the emotional rawness still in evidence of the anger and pain felt by Ontario Provincial Police officers over their emasculation by OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino. And this is the guy with the hallowed reputation for law enforcement who has been received the nod to run for the Conservative Party of Canada in the next election in the federal riding of Vaughn. Do Ontarians really have such short memories?

Caledonia became an insult to law and order and public civility when the provincial government under Premier Dalton McGuinty and Julian Fantino's meticulous instructions to the law and order brigade that under no circumstances were the militant young aboriginals - who strutted and bragged and threatened and humiliated people in the area - to be bothered, upset, taken into custody. Short of abduction and murder, they could comport themselves as they would. And they did.

The Ontario Provincial Police members were informed unequivocally that the Douglas Creek Estates area were to be seen as the preserve of "First Nations persons", and off limits to them. In fact, if any OPP officers ventured onto the area in pursuit of upholding the laws of the land and holding law-breakers to account, they could expect no back-up from their OPP brethren, and they were forced to extricate themselves as best they could when surrounded by threatening crowds.

"...enforce the law absolutely. We don't stand by and allow violence and that to occur, but at the end of the day, if we can do it in a more strategic way, that's the way to go..." is the message quoted from Julian Fantino, appearing in Helpless. If that mealy-mouthed, non-confrontational, appeasement isn't a blazing impression of double-speak, nothing is. OPP were definitely instructed to stand by and allow violence "and that" to occur; they were constrained from "absolutely" enforcing the law.

Because the cowardly provincial authorities had no wish to tangle with First Nations warriors again. Each time they did so in the past, the guilt syndrome and political correctness slapped them down, through public opinion and the courts of law. Because there is, in reality, one set of laws for all citizens of the province - and another entirely for all aboriginals of the province - who, in any event, disdain provincial laws, claiming bellicosely that their 'nation' has their own laws.

Something like the standoff in France between the police, cowering on the outskirts of the country's notoriously squalid and violence-prone banlieues where authorities dare not tread lest they be cornered, surrounded and another kind of justice meted out. So it is with the First Nations militias whom their own native governing councils cannot control.

In Mr. Fantino's own words, cited in the book: "when officers have either accidentally or otherwise gone on there [Douglas Creek Estates], it's pretty difficult to extricate them once they get in there and they are surrounded and we've got hundreds of people on speed dial that converge on the area." Now that's a concern, isn't it, that warriors will not permit OPP nor anyone else to enter an area they claim to be theirs, but which really is not.

And that they will beckon back-up to appear to intimidate, threaten and worse should any be foolish enough to enter the area and confront them, insisting that the law is meant to be applied equally to everyone, and no one is exempt from civil, lawful behaviour. Except that for the militant aboriginals there's something like a free pass, encouraging their arrogance by default so they live in another world entirely.

Confronting the violence and the unlawful behaviour is interpreted by the province and the OPP as creating a 'disaster', one where full-fledged confrontation on the scale before seen at Oka and Ipperwash seems inevitable - and a repeat of which is fairly unappetizing to the provincial authorities. This is an insane situation which benefits no one, not the aboriginal population nor the rest of society. It does nothing but create adversarial resentment and the potential for further violence.

But this is a completely cowed, intimidated government that has no idea how to begin to solve problems of their own making.

Spurned Spite

Wrath hath no fury like a woman whose entitled stance built on gender and colour denied, elicits. And the imbroglio of Professor Emily Carasco at the University of Windsor is certainly a case in point. This is not the kind of woman anyone should want to cross. She is not the type of woman who will stand humbly by and allow herself to be crossed. And she has become dreadfully cross, in the process.

It almost stands to reason that Professor Carasco was once a candidate for the NDP. She somehow fits the mold. This is entitlement run amok, but then that also reflects what has become of the NDP, once a party to be respected, now just another political party but more sanctimonious and grasping than most. And while that's another story altogether, there is still that connection...in the persona and the demands of Professor Carasco.

Who rants and raves against the unfair and societally-assumed entitlements "of white males", through a "culture of privilege which white men expect to have continue, and will defend with impunity". Bet you thought that was yesterday's feminist political ideology. Well clearly, for Professor Carasco, it remains today's. Affirmative action will never go out of style for her. And, fact is, it was even utilized on her behalf.

That happened when the University of Windsor, looking for a new dean of law had selected two final candidates of whom Ms. Carasco was one. As a woman of colour she was granted "extra points due to her gender and self-identification as a visible minority", in scores allotted her, as opposed to another short-list candidate, a white male. Neither he nor she was able to raise a sufficient score to qualify for the position, although his was slightly elevated in comparison to hers.

As a result the search for a winning candidate for the position of dean of law was meant to continue and the two failed candidates set aside. There was also some question about Professor Carasco's ethics with respect to taking ownership of work performed by someone else; plagiarism. Aside from which other members of the faculty were not thrilled at the prospect of her winning the post in question.

She was considered generally to be a disruptive, querulous personality, whose elevation to dean of law would have the effect of condemning the law school to "years of acrimony, division and dysfunction". She begged to differ, and became so enraged over the matter that she asked the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario to halt the ongoing search for a new dean, appoint her to the position and award compensation for "injury to dignity" of $60,000.

The university held that were the HRTO to have acceded to Professor Carasco's demands,it would represent "inappropriate interference with the university's autonomy", as an affront to academic freedom. The kicker here is that the search committee was comprised of six women "four persons of racialized origins"; one with a disability; a female Superior Court Judge; and an African-Canadian assessor.

Moreover the chairwoman of the committee was a scholar of 19th Century female emancipation, who just happened also to be the founder of the university's women's studies program. The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario determined under the circumstances to withhold its judgement, and the search for a new dean is ongoing.

It has not been subsequently reported whether Professor Carasco's bile has poisoned her mortally.