Allowing millions of 3rd Worlders into Europe "cardinal mistake": Putin

When it comes to the wisdom (or otherwise) of filling your country with unassimilable Muslim "refugees" and asylum-seekers, Vladimir Putin is on the right track. Speaking at the beginning of the G20 summit in Osaka, the Russian president declared recently that liberalism in Europe and the US has "outlived its purpose".

The Father of All the Russias [Archaism! Ed.] criticised Western views on gay rights, immigration and multiculturalism, all of which he sees as parts of an attack on traditional family values. Speaking to the Financial Times, Mr Putin said the "liberal idea" was on its way out, as the public has turned its back on "social justice" issues. And he called German chancellor Angela Merkel's 2017 decision to allow more than a million "refugees" into her country (and thus into the European Union) a "cardinal mistake".

President Putin said, "[Liberals] cannot simply dictate anything to anyone just like they have been attempting to do over the recent decades. This liberal idea presupposes that nothing needs to be done. That migrants can kill, plunder and rape with impunity because their rights as migrants have to be protected. Every crime must have its punishment. The liberal idea has become obsolete. It has come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population."

Indeed. But do you hear anything like that from any of the mainstream political leaders in western Europe or the AABC countries? Sadly, no. Walt would like to hear one, just one of the 20+ hopefuls looking to lose the 2020 election say at least that it's time to have a "conversation" about the wisdom of the Democrats' liberal (and worse) policies. But I'm not holding my breath.

Further reading: "Francis Fukuyama: unassimilated immigrants pose threat to liberalism", WWW 18/6/19.

Cultural lessons from the G8/G20 summit

The American: businesslike, unwilling to be distracted.
The Canadian: self-absorbed and disconnected from reality


The Italian and the French: "LOOK AT THAT ASS!"

But one question is left unasked and unanswered. What is the girl looking at? Is that a shadow or is Mr. Harpoon more interested in her than he's letting on?

Thanks as always to Agent 46 for the chuckle of the day.

Here's Officer Bubbles

Well, here it is, the infamous "Officer Bubbles" video clip. This image of "Toronto's finest" in action has now been seen by millions around the world.

Canadian taxpayers, this is the "security" your billion-plus dollars paid for. The brave boys in blue [black, surely. ed.] haven't said anything about this yet, not publicly at least. The officer in question has been heard to say "Hey man, da bitch wuz dissin' me!"

Just like the infamous RCMP Sergeant Pepper. "This is what you came for. Here it is!" But the bullies in blue [black! ed.] can't help it. It's the nature of the beast.

It all reminds Walt of vids from the flower power era -- girls in gossamer gowns and granny glasses stuffing flowers into the muzzles of the cops assault rifles. Have we not learned that peace doesn't grow out of the barrel of a gun?

Inquiries aplenty! Fortunes to be made!

Lawyers! Get your car unwelded from the back of the ambulance and make haste to Toronto! Get your place at the trough for the newest and biggest inquiries into the police "actions" at the G20 summit!

At last count (at mid-week) three investigations into the conduct of the multi-force security unit had been announced. The Toronto police were going to do their own internal review. The SIU [Seafarers International Union? ed.] was to be called in. Then the Toronto Police Services* Board issued its own fuzzification.

Now Ontario's Ombudsman, André Marin, says his office will investigate the security regulations announced by "The Bill" Blair, supposedly with the backing of the provincial government, which, according to Blair, allowed the cops to stop and frisk anyone coming within 16 feet of the Big Fence, and arrest anyone who objected.

M. Marin, well-known for his aversion to sea birds, vowed Friday to leave no tern unstoned [Is this right? ed.] in his efforts to whitewash the actions of the government. He is not merely a fart-catcher, M. Marin said, noting that “We can subpoena any member of the public, which includes … people within the government, if we're investigating something within our jurisdiction.”

The last three words are the weasel words. Expect the Toronto police and the federal government, among others, to challenge the Ombudsman's jurisdiction. This would be in line with the feds' employment stimulus program, since it will create 1000s of billable hours of "work" for m'learned friends plus overtime for dozens of judges.

As a plus for the government, legal fees are now subject to HST! Ah yes, it looks like a great year (or more) ahead for the legal profession.

* Footnote: Walt is so old he can remember when the police were called "the police force". When did that get changed to "police service"? And how about their motto, "to serve and protect"? Ha. It is to laugh. Ask the Niagara resident who had his prosthetic leg ripped off by the cops during the "peaceful protest". "Serve and protect" indeed.

Call for tenders - paint and related products

Calls continue for an inquiry into the actions (and inactions) of the police during the G20 summit in Toronto at the end of June. Toronto police and their allies (who came from 1000s of miles away -- kind of reminds you of Afghanistan!) are accused of both not doing enough to prevent the vandalism and violence or of using excessive force on 100s of innocent bystanders, in other words doing too much.

In response, the Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty, first said there would be no inquiry. Then Toronto police chief "The Bill" Blair said the police would conduct an "internal review". In other words, they would investigate themselves.

This announcement was, for some reason, greeted with scepticism. Remarks like "couldn't find a blackberry in a saucer of milk" were heard. So now the Special Investigations Unit has been called in. That's the provincial body -- staffed by cops, ex-cops, crown lawyers and such -- whose mission is to exonerate the police of any misconduct in cases where civilians wind up in hospitals or morgues as a result of police actions.

But some people will never be satisfied. Protesters continued to demand a civilian investigation. So now the Toronto Police Services Board, to which the police are supposedly accountable, has announced its own "independent review", to be conducted at a later date, by person or persons unknown, with a mandate to be announced ... errrr ... later.

Expressions of interest are invited for the supply of several thousand gallons of whitewash for use by the three (and counting) inquiries. Bids should be sealed in a plain brown envelope (approx. 2.5" x 6") addressed to "Justice, Queen's Park".

Footnote: The TPSB, in a display of back-pedalling which would make a champion cyclist green with envy, has added that it only has jurisdiction over the Toronto police, so anything done by the Ontario Provincial Police, the RCMP, the Montréal police, the Regina police [that's enough police. ed.] won't be looked at.

Canadians love their cops

OK, here's the straight poop on the riot in Toronto on G20 weekend.

Some have objected to my use of the word "riot", but there were thousands of cops and fewer thousands of demonstrators/protesters/rioters in the streets, over 900 arrests, over a million dollars in property damage, burning police cruisers...the lot. If that isn't a riot, what is it?

The G20 leaders and some invited guests (like the president of the great state of Malawi) met in Toronto this past weekend to resolve the problems of the world: recession, fat cat bankers, "maternal health" (read: abortions for Africans) and so forth.

They were invited by Canadian Prime Minister "Call me Steve" Harper, presumably to get even with Toronto for not electing a single Conservative MP to sit in the rows of trained seals behind him in the House of Commons.

Toronto's leftie mayor, David Millertime, and rightie police chief, Bill "The Bill" Blair [you have to be British to get that - ed.] warned that there'd be trouble, but no-one listened, except to decide that maybe now would be a good time to beef up security.

So over a billion Canadian taxpayers' dollars was spent to bring cops in from all over Canada -- as far away as the Northwest Territories -- for an all-expenses-paid weekend in the Big Smoke.

And of course there were toys for the boys:

• shiny black storm trooper outfits straight out of Star Wars
• gas masks to be donned when the world leaders spoke [really? ed.], and
• brand new cannons -- water and sound, the use of the latter being blocked by court order just before the fun began

Some construction work was done too. An old film studio was converted into a temporary "holding facility" -- i.e. a jail -- capable of housing 500 protesters/anarchists/innocent bystanders. And a Really Big Fence was built around several downtown city blocks, either to keep the residents in or keep the rabble out.

The Fence is central to this story. Just before the storm broke, the police announced that anyone approaching within 5 meters (about 16 feet) of the fence could be stopped and asked for ID, searched...and arrested if they didn't comply.

On being questioned about their authority for this, "The Bill" told the media that these powers had been confirmed by the Ontario government a few days earlier, in a secret Order-in-Council which would be gazetted (government-speak for "published") next month. Deputy Police Chief Eric Cartman said, "Don't question my authoritie!" [Are you sure about this? ed.]

It turns out that ... errrr ... there was no such law or regulation on the books. Never was. The cops lied about that. Caught in the lie through the efforts of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the media, "The Bill" now says, in effect, that it was better for the public to think the cops had extraordinary powers of arrest, even though they didn't. In other words, the end justified the means.

Here's a quote from this morning's Globe and Mail column by Adam Radwanksi.

"Not only did Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals place limits on civil liberties without telling anyone – but they also then washed their hands as police misrepresented and misused their new powers.

"It’s a glaring abdication of responsibility, reflective of a government overly content to give police carte blanche even in the most volatile situations."

Why would the Ontario government -- and the federal government which was ultimately responsible for this fiasco -- let the police be a law unto themselves? Let me give you two answers.

First of all, the government of Ontario has no policies or principles. The Premier, Dalton McGuinty -- who it is rumoured recently turned down the lead role in a remake of Father Knows Best -- has yet to have Idea One about what a government should or should not do. So he does what "staff" (i.e. the bureaucrats in Queen's Park) tell him is good to do.

That's not the same as "the right thing to do", in spite of his parrotting of this phrase to defend the new Harper Sales Tax. Another case in point: the recent flip-flop over whipping the LGBTQ sex-ed agenda on 8-year-olds in Ontario schools. See Walt's blog, passim.

Reason Two. The plain truth is that our governments -- federal, provincial and municipal -- are afraid of the police. Why else would they spend ten times more than has ever been spent before on defending a city which didn't want the damned summit against a "security threat" which became a self-fulfilling prophecy?!

The whole riot could have been avoided by holding the Big Powwow in a more appropriate place. La Ronge, Saskatchewan, would have been a good choice. Walt lived not far away, once upon a time. Nice lake there. They wouldn't have had to build a fake one...inside a downtown building. But nooooo....

"There's gonna be trouble!", the cops told us. "Better give us more arms, and lots more boots on the ground. Oh yeah, and more power too. When we say 'Jump!', those pinko queer protesters better ask 'How high?" And so it came to pass.

We are left with the disturbing image of what has been called "a police state". Canada is not a police state like China or Zimbabwe. But it is a state which is over-policed.

Let us not kid ourselves that the boys and girls in blue can do no wrong. They can...and they do. Cops are bullies. It's the nature of the beast. The kids at school who wanted to be hall monitors or prefects are the same ones who grew up to be cops.

The police love their authority. They revel in it. They wallow in it. They delight in pushing people around. And unless they get called on it -- perhaps by the inquiry which ought to follow the events of this weekend -- it will just get worse and worse. Don't expect the G20 riot to be the last.

FOOTNOTE: A reader writes in New Canadian English to say that only $122 million was spent on beefing up the police presence. Whether it was $122 million or ten times that amount is beside the point. A small fortune was spent needlessly and Toronto still got trashed. Ed.

148

Sergeant James MacNeil, RIP

Sgt. MacNeil was killed by an IED in Afghanistan today, the 148th Canadian to die there for... for what?

In a related story, the British death toll in Armpitistan has now risen to over 300. The UK's new prime minister, David Cameron, said "We are paying a high price for keeping our country safe, for making our world a safer place."

Indeed. But Canada, with roughly a quarter of the number of British troops in Afghanistan, yet about half the number of dead, is paying a higher price. As for keeping the world safe, has anyone seen any evidence of this as yet?

If the world is a safer place, why has Canada just spent over a billion dollars on security for the upcoming G8/G20 meeting of world leaders? That's pretty steep, especially considering that Afghanistan's democratically elected leader, the Krazai guy, won't be there.

Fertilizer bomb scare just that - OOOOOOOO!!!

As predicted in yesterday's post, the guy who bought all the fertilizer from the Vineland co-op has turned out to be ... wait for it ... a farmer. His intention was not to blow up all the VIPs attending the G8/G20 summit (and the fake lake!) but to grow bigger strawberries. Walt was right. Lifetime average .991.

Meanwhile, hundreds of police manhours ["personhours" please. ed.] were spent looking for this guy. An identikit drawing was on every newscast. Ooooooo...could be a terrorist! After all, he spoke with a European accent, or maybe it was an Arab accent. And he was missing two fingers from one hand. Could be a Japanese gangster or a member of some weird cult! Ooooooo!!!

And he bought the fertilizer only 20 miles or so from the US border. Oooooooo! Maybe he's already smuggled it across the bridge to attack America! Ooooooooo!!!

What we saw yesterday was a prime example of how the paranoia that has gripped the Excited States of America since 9/11 has infected the rest of the West. We are afraid of everything now, even old people innocently going about their business.

What Toronto Police Staff Supt. Jeff McGuire called "a gardening incident" was blown out of all proportion by the media and (especially) the police and government. What a great opportunity to justify the billion-plus dollars being spent on "security"! What a load of fertilizer!!!

Postscript: It's worth noting that at least three police forces -- Niagara, Toronto and the RCMP -- never did find the farmer. He came forward on his own after seeing the story on TV.

Fake lake update

Check out this parody of the Barenaked Ladies' "If I Had a Million Dollars", written by Jennifer Smith in honour of Stephen Harper's fake lake, Tony Clement's steamboat, and the billion dollar bill for the G8 and G20 Summits. Performed by the writer and Lesley Stankaitis, accompanied by Iain Smith.

Note: Don't be startled by the sound cannon effect about 2.5 minutes in. It's part of the joke!

G8/G20 security update

Last week I commented on the ridiculous amount -- over a billion dollars -- being spent on "security" for the photo-op that masquerades as a summit of world leaders, to be held in Ontario at the end of this month. That's a billion US bucks, just for "security", not including the cost of other huge pork barrels such as Lake Harper -- the fake lake being built inside the Toronto media centre, a stone's throw (if you have a good arm) from Lake Ontario (a real lake).

Here are a couple of examples of how much planning and care is going into the security arrangements.

As if bringing cops and soldiers from all over Canada wasn't enough, the RCMP (a.k.a. Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen) decided they'd better hire a private security company to provide additional manpower. [Please say "personpower". ed.] Who better to turn to than the firm which guarded the Winter Olympics held in February in Vancouver. They managed to keep "Call me Steve" Harper and other VIPs* from getting stoned (in the Biblical sense) or pied, so they could do the same again now, right?

Only one hitch. The ink on the contract had barely dried before someone noticed that the firm in question, Contemporary Security Canada, is... errrr... not licensed to undertake such services in the province of Ontario. Since getting a licence takes 6-8 months, and the summit is to be held in a couple of weeks, there's some pretty fast walking around in the halls of Queen's Park this morning.

Meanwhile, in Vineland, Ontario -- just down the road from Fruitland -- the horsemen have joined the local police -- both of them -- in looking for the man who bought 60 55-pound bags of ammonium nitrate.

As the village names suggest, that part of Ontario is fruit country, whence come many surprisingly good wines. The wines are made from grapes. To grow the grapes you need fertilizer, which is what ammonium nitrate is.

So what's the big deal? Seems a bright Mountie remembered that ammonium nitrate was what Timothy McVeigh used to make his bomb in Oklahoma City in 1995. And with the G8/G20 and G8 summits just around the corner, you can't be too careful, eh!

Mind you, McVeigh used about 120 times the amount bought in Vineland, but still, according to RCMP Sgt. Marc LaPorte, "It is a legitimate fertilizer in that quantity, it's just that it is also an ingredient for a bomb. There is a concern because of the upcoming events in Huntsville and Toronto. We're taking this potential threat seriously."

Maybe a bit too seriously? Leave aside the distinct possibility that the purchaser is a farmer. Walt's Ontario roadmap reveals that Toronto is about an hour's drive from Vineland, and Huntsville... errr... about three hours.

As fans of The Simpsons and South Park know, it's all too easy to poke fun at Canada. Right now a would-be humorist doesn't even to make up stories. All you have to do is write the news. Stay tuned for more of the hilarious antics of those crazy Canucks!

* Very Irritating Persons

And don't forget the boat!

There's more to "the great fake lake caper".

What would a lake be without a boat? Turns out -- at least according to Liberal MP Siobhan Coady -- that there's a big ole steamboat, the SS Bigwin, rusting away in one of the lakes in the Muskoka riding of Conservative Industry Minister Clement Clement.

So, as long as we're splashing a couple of mill for a lake [geddit? ed.] why don't we fix up that leaking boat too? It'll only cost another $400,000 or so.

Of course we wouldn't actually be able to bring the boat into the Media Centre in Toronto in time for the G20, but the world leaders attending the G8 could maybe go for a little toot around the lake. And we could take pictures of it and put them in our press kits. So it wouldn't be a waste. Right guys?... Guys?....

Walt's source inside the Harper cabinet reports that the idea was about to be torpedoed [geddit? ed.] until Defence Minister Peter McHackey threw out a lifeline. [Stop torturing the metaphor! ed.] After the summit, the SS Bigwin could be renamed the HMCS Bigwin and attached to the Royal Canadian Navy for service in Afghanistan!

"But... errr... isn't Afghanistan landlocked?" asked Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence "Loose" Cannon. Said Harpoon, "Either stay on the message or shut up! If we don't all swim together, then we'll sink!"

The great fake lake caper

Last week Walt commented on the outrageous amount -- over a billion Canadian dollars or $950,000,000 in real money -- being spent on "security" for the upcoming G8 and G20 summits. The Harper government seems bent on enriching every last cop in Canada, as well as giving the boys lots of nice new toys -- including sound cannons -- to play with.

One writer estimates that every single attender at the conferences will be protected by no fewer than 17 "security personnel", all working overtime and being fed and housed (quite agreeably -- sirloin steaks, anyone?) on the taxpayers' dime. That's not counting Bollocks Obama, who brings his own security staff with him.

Unfortunately for Canadian taxpayers, there are other costs besides "security". Leeches ["media personnel", surely! ed.] from all over the world will be in attendance, and "we" want to make a good impression on them so they'll talk up Canada in their reports to the folks back home.

One of the nicest things Canada has to offer (other than the finest rye whiskey in the world) is its thousands upon thousands of clear blue lakes. "Blue lake and rocky shore / I will return once more..." A great many -- thousands! -- of said lakes are in the Muskoka district of central Ontario, which is where the G8 summit is being held. Too bad the world's media won't be able to see them.

That's right, gentle reader. The Harper government, in its wisdom (and also to give a little punt to its feckless Industry Minister, Tony Clement) located the G8 meeting at a resort near the small town of Huntsville (in Clement's riding), which simply can't accommodate the locust-like hordes of press people. They'll have to stay in Toronto.

But Clement and Harper know how to fix that. Instead of taking the international media to the lake, the clever Canadians will bring the lake to the media!

Walt wouldn't kid you! In spite of running the worst deficit in Canadian history, the government really is going to spend about $2 million (and counting) to build an artificial lake inside the Media Centre at the Canadian National Exhibition park. It will have a fake dock and a Jumbotron to show pictures of the lakes and shores of beautiful Muskoka.

Residents of Mr. Clement's riding are addressing a petition to their nerdy MP to thank him for preventing the invasion of the media reptiles. Taxpayers in the rest of the country are predictably less thrilled.

And the opposition parties are having a field day with yet another example of Tory extravagance and mismanagement. Liberal MP Mark Holland, noting that $20-million is being allocated to dancers, fiddlers and flowers, suggested the government would be better suited to “party planning for Lady Gaga” rather than holding a substantive summit.

Click here for a video clip of scathing comments from Mr. Holland and NDP leader Jack Layton, courtesy of Canadian Press and the Globe and Mail.

Don't check the calendar. It's not April 1st. This is not a joke, although Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe said the lake "is one of the funniest things I have ever heard."

Toronto councillor Adam Vaughan told the Toronto Star, "If it wasn’t so serious, it would be hysterically funny.... The federal government refuses to compensate the businesses in my ward [the site of the G20] for damages, yet they’ll build a $2 million fake lake -- across from a real lake. As far as I’m concerned, they can jump in that lake!"

UPDATE: Minister of Industry and Stuff Clement Clement is now quoted as saying it's not a lake, it's a reflecting pool! Walt guesses he wants to be like the vampire's mirror -- no reflection on him!