Cecilia Zhang found dead, public outrage strangely absent

Tragically, the remains of Cecilia Zhang, abducted from her parents’ home last October, were found yesterday by a hiker. This is a very sad end to this high-profile story. However, I cannot help but feel that the hearts of Cecilia’s fellow Torontonians are somewhat misguided. Even the newspapers seem to view her death more as an accident, as though she had been hit by a car or stumbled onto the railway tracks, than as the kidnapping and brutal slaying that it was.

After all, a short while ago a few eggs were thrown at synagogues, and this apparently warranted a rally of 2,500 and pompous speeches from the Premier and the Mayor of Toronto vowing to catch the culprits. But this isn’t a few eggs. This is an innocent and much-loved 9-year-old girl, abducted from her home, almost certainly sexually assaulted and then brutally murdered and left in a ravine. Where are the crowds demanding justice and retribution for her killer? Where are the speeches from politicians decrying this evil act?

Cecilia is not an isolated victim. Toronto is one of the most violent cities in North America, with three times the murder rate of Chicago, one of the most violent cities in the US. I think Toronto is woefully overcomplacent if it troubles itself with egg-throwing when so many murderers and pedophiles are loose. Perhaps Cecilia’s sad demise can teach us something about priorities and values.

A family’s greatest fear: Forensic tests confirm body in Peel ravine is Cecilia’s

Hope that Cecilia Zhang would return safely to her family switched to prayers for swift justice yesterday, the day after a hiker stumbled on a gruesome find in the heart of Mississauga. Forensic tests yesterday confirmed the remains found in a park by the Credit River are those of 9-year-old Cecilia, the North York girl who was abducted by possibly two people from the safety of her bed on Oct. 20.

A Terrorist is a Terrorist is a Terrorist

Ripped from the misguided pages of political correctness, Reuters is accusing the National Post of “inappropriately inserting the word into newswire copy dealing with the Middle East, thereby changing the meaning of those stories.”

Newspapers accused of misusing word ‘terrorist’

One of the world’s leading news agencies, Reuters, said CanWest newspapers has been altering words and phrases in its stories dealing with the war in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Reuters told CBC News it would complain to CanWest about the issue.

Gov. Gen. Clarkson Rides High on Horse

In what seems like an almost daily occurrence, new reports point to the extravagant lifestyle of Adrienne Clarkson.

GG joins summer jetset
Forget the tiring road trips — Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson flies on government jets when she enjoys down time at her summer cottage in the Muskokas. Clarkson, who has come under fire for an exploding budget and pricey globetrotting, was ferried at least twice to her private summer residence on Georgian Bay at taxpayers’ expense.

She travelled on board a Transport Canada King Air because Parry Sound’s landing strip isn’t long enough to accommodate the government’s luxury Challenger jet.

Where is the accountability here?

Are there no checks and balances in this system of ours? Lets take a look at headlines, we blow nearly a billion + dollars on a ill-advised gun registry, we dump hundreds of millions on a globe trotting elitist, we lose $159 million to Hewlett Packard, and we line the pockets of corrupt Liberals and their Liberal friendly advertising companies. And this is just in today’s paper!

I can not believe I pay taxes so this utterly inept government can pay lip-service to democratic and institutional reform.

Toronto condemns hate but won’t state the obvious truth

A recent spate of anti-semitic hate crimes has been noted in Toronto, with synagogues subjected to petty vandalism such as egg-throwing and anti-semitic graffiti, including crude swastikas and slogans. Toronto has come out against these attacks publicly in rallies, with luminaries such as Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Mayor of Toronto David Miller giving speeches on tolerance and so forth. Everybody condemns the crime, but there’s no mention of who might be behind it. What scant public speculation has been made is about white supremacists.

Perhaps they have all gone deaf and blind? These attacks started directly after the Israeli military assassinated Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Palestinians in the West Bank are up in arms about this attack and their countrymen in Toronto have staged protests and demanded that the Canadian government condemn the assassination. Swastikas do not point to Nazis since the swastika has become a universal symbol of anti-semitic hatred, and if you don’t believe that, look at the graffiti in the West Bank next time the news is on. Swastikas everywhere.

Yet when it comes to condemning these crimes, nobody is going to mention the word “Muslim” or “Palestinian.” If Torontonians are going to get up on their high horses about these attacks, the least they could do would be to avoid hypocrisy and spell out who is almost certainly behind it. However, confronting the fact that Muslims and Palestinians are capable of hate crimes and, dare I say it, terrorism and evil, would put a dent in the left-wing love affair with the violent Palestinian cause and their condemnation for Israeli defence against it, which might also shake some ideas about the USA having brought 9/11 upon itself and George W. Bush’s so-called campaign of conquest in Iraq. It’s difficult to acknowledge that you’ve backed the wrong team.

Thousands rally against hate

Swift, united action is the best way to defeat anti-Semitism, civic leaders were told as they stood with the GTA’s Jewish community last night at a rousing anti-hate rally.

A boisterous crowd of more than 2,500 came out in response to the recent outbreak of anti-Semitic graffiti and vandalism. They filled the Leah Posluns Theatre, two gymnasiums, hallways and an outdoor courtyard where a thousand people listened on loudspeakers.

Ottawa restores state TV funding

After the government cut it’s funding of the television industry to $62.5m last year, the new budget announced that funding would be restored to the historical annual $100m until at least 2006.

Wonderful news! Long live our biased, unobjective, state-run media! Hooray that we have even less chance of hearing the truth about the government on TV! Ah, the glory days of Pravda and Goebbels’s Ministry of Propaganda are coming back. Canadians, too, can still boast of being better than China, for our People’s Daily is televised! Who needs a free press? It might be good enough for the USA, but not for us!

Television industry grateful for restoration of funding in federal budget

Members of the television industry breathed a sigh of relief as the federal government announced it will restore its financial contribution to the Canadian Television Fund.

Sandra Macdonald, president and CEO of the fund which supports the production of Canadian TV drama, said the announcement in the budget “clearly demonstrates that our government values the social and economic impact that Canadian television has on our society.”

The fall of the great Canadian dream

It seems that there is a pervasive, proud and blind madness to Canadian politics and thinking. Everywhere one looks, systems are collapsing and Canadian culture looks increasingly unconvincing as anything more than a denial. I believe that Canada is suffering an inferiority complex combined with cognitive dissonance, confronted with the truth that what Canada has stood for and “achieved” since WWII has, by and large, been a failure. The great, Canadian, socialist mixed-economy experiment is in a state of collapse, like a leaking Zeppelin into which ever-increasing resources must be poured just to keep it aloft; but rather than let it fall and get ourselves a modern airliner we will continue to insist that the ponderous, leaking Zeppelin is the best way. There are none so blind as those who will not see, and Canada has blinded herself to everything.
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Martin blames Mulroney for secret unity fund

Paul Martin alleged yesterday that a secret Liberal unity fund was actually created by former PM Brian Mulroney in 1992. The day before, two government officials including one working in Martin’s office claimed that the fund was in fact created in 1995, by the Liberals.

All of Paul Martin’s “it was him” shenanigans remind me of an old joke:

When Brezhnev comes to power in the USSR, he finds two letters in his desk from Kruschev. They are addressed to him and the envelopes are printed with the phrase, “Open in case of dire need.” A few years later, there is a bad harvest and famine looks imminent. There could be trouble for the Soviet government. Brezhnev opens the first envelope, and inside is a note that reads, “Blame everything on me.” He takes it to heart, blames the famine on Kruschev’s policies and the government survives. A few years later again, there is an uprising in Poland, and the other satellite states are growing restless. The Soviet Empire could be disintegrating. Brezhnev returns to the desk drawer and opens the second envelope. The note inside simply reads, “Prepare two letters.”

Martin blames Mulroney for creating shadowy unity fund

Prime Minister Paul Martin tried to deflect criticism over a secret Liberal unity fund Wednesday, saying it was actually created by the Tories under Brian Mulroney in 1992.

His dismissal of the National Unity Reserve came one day after the federal budget announced the cancellation of the fund, whose contents fluctuated from year to year from an average of $40 million to $85 million.

It also came a day after two government officials, including one in Martin’s office, said the fund was created by the Liberals around the time of the 1995 referendum.

Canada’s laughing-stock military heads to Haiti in rentals

170 soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment left yesterday for Haiti as part of an international effort to restore peace to the troubled country. The Canadian soldiers and their equipment, however, left on a rented Russian Antonov 124-100, a transport aircraft derived from a design conceived for the Soviet military, and another Russian Ilyushin 76, both of which will make two round trips to save money. Defence Minister David Pratt remarked that “Canada always has to rent aircraft for major, overseas deployments. We’re looking at options in the future to meet our lift needs.”

Is this not just a tad embarrassing? While the US and UK militaries go around the world on modern transports, escorted by advanced tactical fighter aircraft, strike carrier battle groups and nuclear submarines, Canada is looking at the military equivalent of Budget Auto Rentals every time it goes overseas. Apart from being an international laughing-stock, this is also a serious problem for foreign policy. We can only go to war by someone else’s leave, and so much for Canadian sovereignty.

Main military force from New Brunswick heads to Haiti for 90-day mission

Blame murderers, not forces of justice

At the funeral held for the 190 victims of the Madrid train bombings yesterday, several family members expressed anger at Spanish, US and British governments. As outgoing Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar sat, one mourner shouted, “Mr Aznar, I hold you responsible for the death of my son.” The mother of another victim told Spanish radio station Cadena Ser, “I don’t think I am capable of facing Aznar, Blair and Powell, they have stolen away my 20-year-old son.”

It seems that this thinking has dominated the entire Spanish nation. The Madrid train bombings were a great tragedy, however, it is important to remember who is actually to blame. Those responsible for the 190 deaths are not Bush, Powell, Aznar or Blair, they are those who orchestrated this attack and planted those bombs. By this kind of faulty logic, the police cause crimes and Churchill and Roosevelt were responsible for World War II.

There is no excuse for terrorism and murder. Poverty, Western multinational corporations, or Western hegemony which the left so likes to blame do not produce terrorism. India and China are both poor nations, are both economic and military weaklings compared to the West and are both being encroached upon by Western corporatism, however, I don’t see most Indians and Chinese lining up to kill us.

The true causes of terrorism are power-hungry demagogues in the Middle East who are prepared to whip up religious and ethnic hatred to further their own power, impoverishing their people while giving them a convenient scapegoat in the West, and sending their children out with suicide bombs; startlingly similar to a certain mustached Austrian in Germany around 70 years ago. One wonders what the terrorist-apologists would make of him were those events happening now.

So what’s the solution? Perhaps it’s this.

Spain bids emotional farewell to blast victims

Spain bade a solemn and emotional farewell to the 190 identified victims of the Madrid train bombings on Wednesday, at a memorial mass attended by leaders representing most European countries.

Michel Vennat will contest dismissal

After Vennat’s dismissal, his lawyers have vowed to bring suit against the government to protect his reputation. One hopes that such a case will bring us one step closer to the root of Liberal corruption and further raise the issue of scandal and pork-barrelling with the electorate.

Vennat will fight firing

Michel Vennat, the head of Business Development Bank of Canada until he was fired Friday, said he going to contest his dismisal.

Industry Minister Lucienne Robillard said she fired Vennat from his job as president and CEO of the federal government bank to restore public confidence in the institution.

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