VIDEO: Canuck judges go easy on Singh School of Truck Driving killers

Q, What happens to an Indian Sikh if he takes his driver's licence test three times and fails every time?

A. He gets to move to Canada as a "foreign student" or "temporary foreign worker".

Then, all to often, this happens. You'll find the name of the transport driver [Not "Singh", shurely! Ed.] below.

Why yes, Ed. it is Singh. (All Sikh men are Singhs, although not all Singhs are Sikhs.) And the driver who caused this horrific crash is one is just one of dozens of Sikhs who have been treated with extreme lenience by Canadian judges in spite of the carnage they cause on the highways of the Great No-longer-white North. 

Why do they get special treatment? Because if they got jail terms of 6 months or more, they would be liable to be deported -- sent back to the Punjab (or "Khalistan", as they would have it) -- once they've done their time. Notice I say "liable". There is no guarantee that they would actually have to leave Canuckstan, since only 3% of deportation orders are ever carried out.

Earlier this month, Ontario trucker Sukhwinder Sidhu was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail for a similar collision in which he plowed his rig into cars stopped at a construction site, killing former Canadian ice dancer Alexandra Paul. 

Two weeks ago, a Thunder Bay ON judge granted an absolute discharge to another Indian, Ajitpal Singh, who caused a fatal head-on collision with another trucker. Mr Singh's sentence was explicitly made light so that he would avoid deportation to India. 

This past January, Lovepreet Singh was sentenced to nine months in jail for driving his truck at full speed into a Toyota Corolla slowing for a construction zone.  A brother and sister trapped inside the burning car were killed.

In April of this year, a Federal Court judge deferred the deportation of Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, the trucker who killed 16 members of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team in 2018 by speeding through a stop sign.  Mr Sidhu who served three-and-a-half years of an eight year sentence for the crash, and was ordered deported, but the judge -- a Liberal appointee like almost all judges in Canada -- granted a 17-month pause in deportation proceedings so that Mr Sidhu would have time to seek a permanent stay of deportation on "humanitarian and compassionate" grounds. 

Also in April, a BC judge gave 90 days of house arrest to trucker Dalvir Singh Jhattu for a 2023 crash that, according to police, could have easily have killed multiple people. Jhattu drove his tractor trailer at full speed into a tow truck that was in the midst of attaching a Mercedes that had been impounded by the RCMP. That's the crash shown in the video.

The latest incident of judicial insanity occurred this week in Kamloops BC, when Harpreet Singh pleAded guilty to driving without due care and attention in an April 2024 crash where his tractor trailer crossed the centre line and collided with a CN Rail work truck. Both vehicles exploded in flames after colliding. 

Harpreet Singh came to Canada from India in 2023, the year before the collision. One of those who met a fiery death was his passenger, Dharminder Singh. Also killed was Juver Balmores, a CN Rail employee and father of three.

Astonishingly, Crown prosecutors did not pursue criminal charges against Mr Singh, agreeing instead to a fine of C$2000 (about $1460 in real money) and 18 months of probation. Will he be deported? Will he at least be banned from driving for life? Chances are two -- slim and none.

Further reading: "Peel police seek suspects in ‘prolific’ fuel fraud involving commercial trucks", CP24, 28/5/26. You won't read the words "Singh" or "Sikh" but check out the photo, and of course, it's Brampton.

UPDATED: Jesse who? Latest on BC school massacre

What follows appeared on Canada's Global TV News website 46 minutes after Walt's last post on the tragedy at Tumbler Ridge BC. 

"BC RCMP have identified the shooter as 18-year-old female Jesse Van Rootselaar, who is a resident of Tumbler Ridge. [A spokesthingy] said they do have a history of police calls to the family residence involving Van Rootselaar, including some mental health calls."

Ed. was unable to find any photos -- male or female -- of "Jesse Van Rootselaar", but did find the photos above in which the subject is identified as 17-year-old "Jesse Strang". Could they be related? The Mounties later  said that the two Jesses were one and the same. "Jesse Van Rootselaar" is the name that "Jesse Strang" adopted when he changed his "gender identity".

Jesse's mother, Jennifer, and sibling, Emmett, were among the eight (8) victims of his actions. After killing them and wounding over two dozen others (see previous posts), he turned the gun, for which he had an expired licence, on himself. Total body count: 9.

UPDATE just seen on the Babylon Bee.

Your Singhs today (US-Canada border edition)

Today's Singh-along features another chapter of the all-too-familiar tale of Sikhs... well, just one, this time... involved in smuggling drugs across the World's Longest Undefended Border (TM). 

The Canadian Border Services Agency (the equivalent of the US CBP) officers are hooking their thumbs under their suspenders today for having derailed a whopping $42 million beaverbucks worth of cocaine flooding into Canuckistan in two separate busts in August.

The seizures occurred one day apart at the Blue Water Bridge port of entry in Point Edward, near Sarnia, in early August. On the 13th of August, a commercial truck belonging to Diversity Truck Lines* [Ed., please check this] arriving from the US of A was referred for a secondary examination. 

During the trailer inspection, CBSA officers discovered suspected cocaine hidden in six boxes. The total weight of the narcotics was 150 kilos, with an estimated street value of $18.8 million ($13.6 million in real money). Gurjeet Singh, 28, of... wait for it... Brampton ON, was arrested and transferred along with the narcotics to the custody of the RCMP. 

The next day, border officers referred another tractor-trailer entering from the US for a secondary examination. Officers found 199 kilos of suspected cocaine in the trailer of the commercial load, with an estimated value of $24.9 million. Abdikadir Egal, 38, of Etobicoke, was transferred along with the drugs to the RCMP. To judge by his name, Mr Egal is not a Sikh, but a Somali -- a "refugee", no doubt. recruited by the usual suspects from the Singh School of Truck Driving.

Both men have been charged by the Mounties with importation of cocaine and possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking under the controlled drugs and substances act. The investigations are ongoing, as they say.

Canuckistan's Minister of Public Safety, Gary Anandasangaree (no relation) was quick to issue a statement which he hopes will be read by President Trump, as follows: "These recent seizures of illegal narcotics underscore the vital partnership between the CBSA and the RCMP in protecting Canada’s borders. I have visited the Blue Water Bridge and seen up close the unwavering commitment and diligence from the CBSA and RCMP, and their respective leadership in stopping the entry of illegal substances and goods into Canada. Their work makes all of us safer."

Walt says, hold your applause. There's lots more drugs and smugglers of which we'll Singh in due course.

* Thanks to BCF for identifying the trucking company. and to DM, a commenter on BCF, for the info on Mr Egal's nationality. Most Somalis are Muslim, by the way. How's that for the diversity that makes Canada what it is.

Land acknowledgment ceremonies now de rigueur in USA and Canada

On his visit to Canuckistan at the start of the week (see "The Queen of Horsewomen", WWW 27/5/25), King Charles III began his Speech from the Throne with the now mandatory (and ever-meaningless) land acknowledgment ceremony, which is a kind of Confiteor in which liberals afflicted with white guilt concede that the land on w hich they live was filched from the Indians (feathers, not turbans) by their evil, colonialist ancestors.

Ed.: That sets a record for the longest run-on sentence ever posted on WWW. Please don't do that again.

OK, OK. I will simply point out that apologizing for mistakes made by their unwoke ancestors is not just part of Canadian culture, but official government policy. As witness this press conference given by a spokesthingy for the Nova Scotia division of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (aka "Mounties") on 7 May 2025.

That right there shows you what a joke a country can become under prolonged rule by liberal wokesters. Not only did they apologize to the Mi'kmaq (aka Micmac), the local Indians First Nations,but to "Nova Scotian Africans" as well. Hey, they're a distinct people... apparently. And notice the bilingual preface as well, even though there's nary a soul in Nova  Scotia who speaks la langue de Molière. 40 seconds wasted before getting to the point of the presser.

American readers shouldn't be smug, though. These land acknowledgment jokes are common enough in the Paranoid States of America. As witness this one:

Land Acknowledgment: The Babylon Bee Wishes To Acknowledge That Our Offices Are Located On Land Once Occupied By Morton & Mayfield Accounting LLC (14/10/24)

and this one 

Housewarming Party Kicks Off With Land Acknowledgement For The Johnsons Who Lived There Since 2019 (28/5/25)

OK, they're from the Babylon Bee, of course. Who else? But if you arrive on time for any kind of gtovernment event in any blue state (or even some of the red ones), don't be surprised to hear the ritual incantation of: Hiya, hiya, hiya. Sorry, sorry, sorry. 

One question remains. If we're so sorry that we took their land away from our fine feathered friends, why don't we just give it back to them?!

Sad tales from the Heart of Wokeness

In "Fearless predictions for 2023" (WWW 10/1/23), Walt predicted that at least one of the three following heads of government would be out of office by Christmas, as a result of resignation, revolution or death: "Pope" Francis,  Demented Joe Biden, and  Justin "F*ck" Trudeau. Lifetime pct .989.

My batting average would be higher had I foreseen the pleasant surprises of the resignations of not one but three authorities of the wokest kind, all of which have occurred in the last month. A big Nelson Muntz HA-ha has already gone out to New Zealand's Queen of the Lockdowns, Jacinda "Karen" Ardern. Today we add two "leaders" from the wokest country on earth, Canuckistan.  

The first is Brenda Lucki, Commissioner (top cop) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, whose retirement was announced yesterday. HA-ha!

Ms Unlucki was appointed by Prime Minister Blackie McBlackface, the well-known "male feminist", because she's a woman. Oh, and she also happens to be married to Ray Gauthie, a relative of former finance minister Bill Morneau. That could explain why M Trudeau was never arrested for violating ethics laws in the SNC-Lavalin or numberous other affairs.

In a statement announcing what she called a "personal decision", Ms Unlucki said she has decided to retire ahead of reaching five years in the role. Her last day will be March 17th.

We are assured that the timing of her resignation has nothing to do with the impending (tomorrow!) release of the report of the Whitewash Rouleau Commission into the brutal repression of the Freedom Convoy, one year ago.

Brenda has been criticized for not speaking up in the cabinet meeting at which Mr Socks invoked the Emergencies Act to quash all dissent, although emails from Ms Lucki show that she thought there were other alternatives. This prompted Alberta's justice minister to call for her resignation, to which Ms Lucki responded by asserting she remained "fully committed to leading the RCMP."

March will see the release of the final report of the Nova Scotia Mass Casualty Commission. They have been looking into how the RCMP handled the 2020 killing rampage in Nova Scotia that involved a gunman using a replica RCMP vehicle. Ms Unlucki has on several occasions denied accusations of political interference in the case. 

But wait, there's more. In 2020, amid conversations around the woke hobby horse of defunding the police, Ms Lucki faced calls to resign after saying that she struggled with "five or six" definitions of systemic racism. She then quickly acknowledged what she called the national police service's "history of racial discrimination."

Looks from here as if Ms Unlucki has decided to fall on her sword to save PM McBlackface from the embarrassment of having to fire here. Further reading: "Hiring based on gender/workeness rather than merit: not a good idea", WWW 23/1/21.

We turn now to news from Toronto, aka The Wormy Apple -- a "world-class city" in the sense that it has world-class problems of crime, homelessness, crumbling infrastructure, and did I mention crime? 

John Tory -- Tory by name, "progressive" by inclination -- ran for re-election in October on the "politics of hope", taken whole and unadulterated from the teachings of The Prez. He won in a landslide. Because Toronto.

This week, surprise surprise, he resigned in the wake of the revelation by the Toronto Red Star of his affair with a former staffer. HA-ha!

This is like Lori Lightfoot winning re-election on February 28th [Ya think? Ed.] and then resigning because she's been sleeping with Hunter Biden!

According to Hizzoner, the relationship began during the Covid-19 Dempanic, when he and his long-time wife were spending "lengthy periods apart." Honesty John, has always made much of his reputation for integrity, said he was stepping down so he can "reflect on my mistakes" and "do the work of rebuilding the trust of my family."

That's all? Errr, no. Mr Tory also said the relationship "ended by mutual consent" earlier this year, adding that the former staffer had also decided to pursue employment outside of city hall. The word on Bay Street is that she landed in the executive offices of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, with which, by virtue of being a trustee of the Rogers family trust, the now-ex-mayor has some connection. 

The shadow of #MeToo looms in the background. Further reading: "Canada's top general latest victim of 'Me Too'", WWW 4/2/21.

UPDATED: EU court rules illegal immigrants don't have same rights as those who follow the law

Walt has been following events north of the World's Longest Undefended Border, where a handful of "First Nations" people ("Native Americans" to, errr, Americans) and the usual mobs of ultra-lefties and antifa types have succeeded in shutting down Canuckistan's railways almost completely.

They are protesting that the hereditary chiefs (as opposed to the democratically elected chiefs) of an obscure "nation" -- the Wet'suwet'ens -- were not consulted about the building of a natural gas pipeline that crosses their territory in northern British Columbia.

It's a big deal, since many of the things that millions of Canadians depend on to live a normal life -- e.g. water purification chemicals and propane, not to mention food -- move by rail. It's a big enough deal that Just In Trudeau interrupted his latest virtue-signalling world tour to come back to the World's Second-coldest Capital and take a meeting.

When he emerged, blinking in the sunlight, Mr Socks proclaimed that Canada is a country where the rule of law is respected and must be followed. This had Canucks ROFL because the railways have obtained court injunctions against the blockades, orders which the Ontario Provincial Police and Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen refuse to enforce. In Canada, apparently, court orders and the country's laws don't apply to the marginalized and oppressed victims of colonialism, white privilege, yada yada yada.

Walt wonders what Blackface Justin thinks of a recent decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The Gatestone Institute reports that on February 13th the ECHR issued a decision reaffirming the proposition that in order for migrants or other "victims" to benefit from certain human rights protections, such as access to lawyers, interpreters and the right to remain in Europe, they must first enter European territory in a legal, as opposed to an illegal, manner. Imagine that!

The case goes back to August of 2014, when hundreds of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa stormed the border fence at Melilla, a Spanish exclave in North Africa. After spending several hours perched on top of the fence, two men, one from Ivory Coast and the other from Mali, climbed down and were handcuffed by Spanish border police, who handed them over to Moroccan authorities.

The two Africans said they were never given a chance to explain their personal circumstances or receive help from lawyers or interpreters. In February 2015, with the help of human rights weasels ["lawyers", shurely! Ed.] the pair took their case to the ECHR.

In October 2017, the ECHR ruled that summary deportations were a violation of European law, which is politically correct on such things. The court determined that Spanish border police had failed to verify the identity of the migrants, or to provide them with access to lawyers, translators or medical personnel, and ordered Spain to pay each of the men €5,000 (over $5400 in real money). In December 2017, Spain's previous mildly conservative government appealed.

On February 13th, the ECHR unanimously reversed its previous judgment. In a statement, it explained that "[the migrants chose] not to use the legal procedures which existed in order to enter Spanish territory lawfully. Consequently, the Court considered that the lack of individual removal decisions could be attributed to the fact that the applicants — assuming that they had wished to assert rights under the Convention — had not made use of the official entry procedures existing for that purpose, and that it had thus been a consequence of their own conduct."

How about that?! Here's a photo of some illegal immigrants crossing the World's Longest Undefended Border at Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Québec. Who's carrying their bags for them? Why it's the very same RCMP who, for some reason (Hello, Liberal government!) are not enforcing the injunctions against the mob blockading Canada's rail services.

Just In (from Africa) Trudeau has probably not heard about the ECHR decision, and it's not binding on Canadian courts or governments in any case. Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, spokesman for the Spanish Vox (= Voice) Party, commented: "The ECHR's ruling determines that a nation state has the right to defend its borders. When someone is dedicated to violating those borders, the nation state has the right to return that person to their place of origin as quickly as possible."

Wouldn't it be nice if Canada's woke government, or the even-more-woke government-in-waiting (?) of the USA did a 180, like the ECHR, and reserved the benefits of the rule of law to those who obey the law?

Further reading, from the National Post, 17/2/20:
"Enough is enough. Clear the blockades, restore the rule of law", by Derek H. Burney, a former Canadian ambassador to the USA and chief of staff to former PM Brian Baloney. "Dialogue is no prescription for those who refuse to listen because they believe themselves to be custodians of the only truth."
"If Trudeau has lost interest in his job, perhaps he should quit", NP editorial. "While cabinet members have struggled to deal with the rail blockades, Trudeau has been flying around Africa and Europe. Over his four years as prime minister, it has become noteworthy how often Justin Trudeau faces problems of his own making. His sanctimony keeps coming back to bite him. Canadians who follow politics have long been aware of the prime minister’s weakness for pious declarations of well-intentioned morality."

UPDATE ADDED 20/2/20: Canada's Public Safety and Emergency Unpreparedness Minister Bill Blair has just announced that the Mounties in British Columbia have agreed to withdraw from their position on Wet'suwet'en territory and barricade themselves in a nearby town names L'alamo. [Ed., please check town name.] So Just In (from Africa) Trudeau's Liberal government has caved to a few dozen radical activists who don't even have the support of the majority of the Wet'suwet'en people, as represented by their elected (as opposed to hereditary) chiefs. In today's Canuckistan, the mob rules!

Canada's CTV - all the news that fits

Canada's Auditor General, responsible for oversight of the federal government's operations, released some reports today which shone some harsh light on the substandard performances and "challenges" faced by a number of government departments and agencies. Here are six of the AG's findings.

A — Half of the 16 million people who called federal call centres last year couldn't get through. Instead of giving callers the option of waiting, some centres sent them back to the automated phone system, directed them to a website or told them to call back later.

B — Even after having to pay a fine of C$550,000 (nearly $410,000 in real money) for a Labour Code conviction related to the death of three Mounties five years ago, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is unsure if all of its officers have access to the rifles and body armour needed to respond to an active shooter. Apparently Canada's national police force mismanaged the purchase, distribution and ongoing maintenance of semi-automatic rifles known as carbines.

C — Canada’s refugee-determination system is unable to process claims on time despite reforms introduced seven years ago. The "asylum-seeker" (= illegal border crosser) caseload faces a mounting backlog, with a processing system that has chronic delays and lax criminality checks. The AG projects that if the number of new asylum claimants remains steady at around 50,000 per year (!), by 2024 the wait time for decisions will increase to five years, more than double what it is now.

D — The Canadian sales-tax system failed to keep up with the rapidly evolving digital marketplace, with the result that C169 million of Goods and Service Tax on foreign products and services sold in Canada in 2017 went uncollected. In addition, the federal government could not assess and collect all sales taxes on e-commerce transactions.

E — Public funds might be supporting partisan advertising due to a lack of adequate controls. Only government advertising valued at $500,000 or more is reviewed by an independent body, even though less expensive campaigns could represent a risk of partisanship. [No kidding. Ed.]

F — The National Museum of Science and Technology houses a large portion of its collection in leased storage facilities, along with many objects that have yet to be assessed or catalogued. Poor conditions in these spaces pose risks of deterioration, damage and theft.

Walt has not attempted to rank these items in order of importance, but readers will certainly guess which one I think is most significant. I think most Canadians would agree that Canada's porous border -- 50,000 illegals crossing every year, with the RCMP able to do no more than carry their bags and direct them towards the welfare office -- is the problem most in need of immediate attention.

My question for today: Which two (only) did Canada's CTV News think worthy of inclusion in its midday TV newscast? Answer: A & B. Maybe there wasn't enough time for the others, although nearly five minutes was devoted to the latest baby produced by the British royals. Funny though. Item C was mentioned prominently in other lamestream media, even the state-owned Canadian Broadcorping Castration (CBC).

In "Auditor General report more evidence of a Liberal government more taken with grand visions than actual governing", Postmedia's John Ivison writes:

In at least two cases, the problems are less a matter of neglect than the direct consequence of weak and wrong-headed decisions. Let's take the report in order of egregiousness — from clown-car policy to the merely careless. It will come as no surprise that the Liberal government's inept handling of the asylum seeker issue has had an effect similar to closing Highway 401 in rush-hour: system gridlock....

While there is clearly a bureaucratic logjam, the real blame lies in government policy. The Liberals created the problem because getting tough with refugees was not on-brand — even when it became clear that the lax Canadian system was being played by economic migrants flying into the U.S. from countries like Nigeria.

John Ivison was once a regular panelist on CTV's Sunday morning Question Period snorefest. No more. Comments like Mr Ivison's clearly do not fit the liberal narrative. And liberal bias is just as much the foundation of CTV's editorial policies as those of the CBC. The difference is that the CBC gets paid directly by the Liberal government, whereas CTV does not. But wait... The recent federal budget set aside some C$650 million for subsidies to Canada's struggling "independent" media. Guess which media will be at the head of the line.

"Allahu akbar!" in Canada - cops arrest Syrian "refugees" in bomb plot

Cries of "Allahu akbar!" were not heard in Kington ON, because the Mounties, "assisted by the FBI", nipped in the bud a plot by followers of the Prophet Mohammed to "deliver, place, discharge or detonate an explosive or other lethal device...against a place of public use with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury." That's one of the charges laid today against a "young person" who cannot be named or otherwise identified under the provisions of Canada's ultra-lax Youth Justice Act.

Police also charged the "young person" with knowingly facilitating a terrorist activity. Along with the lad (or ladette), Inspector Knacker also arrested an adult male whom CBC News, disregarding M-103, identifies as... wait for it... Hussam Eddin Alzahabi, a friend of the "young person".

Mr Alzahabi also happens to be a "refugee" whose family, originally from Syria, came to Canada in 2017, during Canuck Prime Minister Just In Trudeau's frantic campaign to bring more than 50,000 Syrian refugees to Canada through government and private sponsorships. (The Alzahabi family had actually been in Kuwait for 10 years, but that's not important.)

According to a bulletin posted to the website of a Kingston-area Catholic church detailing the journey of the Alzahabi family, the family's sponsorship application was approved in the spring of 2016, but the family was still awaiting its final security and health checks that fall due to the "overwhelming number of applicants." It appears that those checks may, errr, never have been completed.

Mr Alzahabi's father, Amin, told the meeja today that his son had been arrested but not charged. "I want to know where he is," the father said at his Kingston home. Professing astonishment at the arrest of his son, he went on to tell a CBC News interviewer, "They tell me they search about him about terrorists. I know my son, he didn't think about that. He like Canada. He like the safety in Canada. How could he think about that? It's fake news about my son. I trust my son. I know he cannot do anything against any human, humanity. They inspected everything from my house. They didn't find anything. I think this is not good."

"Not good" indeed! Looks bad at a time when immigration and border security are emerging as the ballot questions for this fall's general election. And don't think the Prime Minister's Office hasn't noticed. Speaking at a "town hall" meeting in Miramachi NB yesterday, Mr Socks warned voters to "be wary of fear-mongering about immigration". A young Syrian "refugee" then thanked him for allowing her family to come to Canada. Any suggestion that the PM was informed in advance of the pending arrest and that the Miramichi event was a lame attempt to get in front of the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim backlash is of course nonsense, and deserving of prosecution. M-103!

Meanwhile, the Gliberal propaganda machine, in concert with the CBC and Canada's tame media [$650 million does a lot of taming! Ed.] are already working hard on damage control. At a presser this afternoon, Inspector Knacker of the RCMP said the investigation is still ongoing, and refused to comment on the ideological motivations of the people apprehended or say if they had any ties to foreign elements.

Elsewhere, Islamic community groups, mental health workers and police officers are meeting even as we speak to "calm fears and discuss ways to prevent an anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant backlash". See? Those are the CBC's words, not just Walt's! Bronek Korczynski, who led the Alzahabi family's sponsorship through Our Lady of Lourdes church, said the community groups that met today will attempt to head off rumours and spread the message that the alleged offences have nothing to do with Islam. Yeah. Right.

Further reading:
"Arrests in Terror Plot Raise Questions About Canada’s Refugee Embrace", in (gasp!!) the New York Times, 25/1/19.
"Undefended border with Canada threatens both countries", WWW 21/1/19. Includes video.

Canadian Mountie in deep doo-doo for simulated sex with vegetable

Corporal Dave Duplissie, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, is learning the hard way that if you have the urge to engage in sex -- even if it's only simulated -- with a vegetable, you'd better not do it while you're on duty... in uniform... and in the presence of a camera! Following a complaint from another Mountie, Cpl Duplissie is being "investigated" for the incident pictured here.

The whistle-blower is one Jesse Anderson, now an EX-Mountie. He worked at the RCMP's Surrey detachment, the largest in Canada. Cpl Duplissie was his supervisor, and apparently took a disliking to Mr Anderson, and vice versa. Mr Anderson, who was only a probationary constable, was eventually fired, for a series of alleged transgressions, including not reporting properly for sick leave, misuse of a government-issued credit card and misplacing a digital recorder. The dismissal recommendation also accuses him of dishonesty and a lack of accountability.

Mr Anderson, for his part, alleges Cpl Duplissie "played favourites" and made his workplace stressful by making racist jokes and other uncoplike conduct. His story about "the eggplant incident" goes like this....

"A member brought in an eggplant. [Duplissie] grabbed it and started to perform fellatio on it, in the office during shift, in uniform." Junior officers gathered around joking about it, and one even recorded it. (The photo is a screegrab from the recording.) Mr Anderson says nobody called Cpl Duplissie on it because he was the senior officer. Neither did Mr Anderson. "I was the outcast already and I kind of wanted to keep my job at that time," he said. "I was too scared."

Mr Anderson also says Cpl Duplissie started making comments and sending derisive texts about the Black Lives Matter movement and about black police officers after one officer disclosed he has some black heritage. Sex with vegetables, Black Lives Matter... those things are clearly not acceptable in today's Great No-longer-white North... as Cpl Duplissie is finding out.

Canuck cops cover up terror attack outside Toronto

Agent 3 gave us this story yesterday but Ed. thought we should sit on it for 24 hours to see if the Canadian "authorities" would tell their people the whole truth, but they didn't, so we will!

Vaughan ON is a fast-growing bedroom community which sprawls along what was once good farmland to the north of Metropolitan Toronto. Apart from a third-rate theme park called "Canada's Wonderland" [not "Canada in Wonderland?" Ed.], it has the usual collection of ticky-tacky tract homes, strip malls and what have you. "What have you" includes a large population of immigrants and a minority of "old stock Canadians".

On Wednesday afternoon, a man walked into a bank branch in a strip mall in the Woodbridge area, just north of the boundary with Toronto, with a gun in his hand and, around his torso, a belt to which was fastened what appeared to be an explosive device of some kind. A serious armed robber, you might think, but nooooo....

Nasir Labib was standing in the doorway of his dental office at around 1300 Wednesday when a customer from the bank just across the plaza came looking for help. Dr Labib picks up the story. "She said there was a young guy inside the bank, had a gun in his hand and had a belt, I think with explosives. And he wasn't asking for money, he was asking for, I believe, a bag of drugs and to talk to Donald Trump by five o'clock or otherwise he's going to blow everybody away."

Dr Labib said the middle-aged woman was traumatized after coming face to face with the gunman, who then asked a customer to give him his cell phone so he could call police. Dr Labib again. "What the lady told me he made them sit down and tied their hands, but she wasn't tied. When I asked her, 'How did you run away?' she said, 'I wasn't tied and then he found out that my hands are free and he asked one of the tellers to tie my hands.' While the teller was doing that, the alarm went off. So her and the teller managed to run out from the fire exit and that's how we found her in front of the office here."

13 staff and customers were in the bank at the time of the incident. York Regional Police officers first on scene were able to get some of them out. The cops, including members of the emergency response unit -- that's what they call SWAT teams these days -- tried trying to negotiate with the suspect, while about 50 children from a daycare centre just a few doors down were escorted into Dr Labib's dental office.

Negotiations failed or at least broke down, so two York Region cops shot the suspect... fatally. And good for them, sez I. Now here's what we know about the deceased. He was a 25-year-old man who lived about 5 miles from the scene of the "incident". That's all the York Region PD would say. Their excuse for not naming the late perpetrator or saying anything about his ethnicity, religion or citizenship status was that the Ontario Special Investigations Unit was in charge of the case, investigating (of course) the conduct of the cops who shot the hostage-taker.

So we have a man armed with a gun and an explosive device entering a bank, not to rob it, but demanding to be put in touch with President Trump. (Some drugs too, please.) We also know that the RCMP were called in. In Ontario, the Mounties only get involved with things like, errr, threats to national security and, errr, terrorism. We also know that the so-called Greater Toronto Area is "home" to 1000s of "refugees", asylum-seekers and other migrants -- legal and illegal -- a large percentage of whom are followers of the Prophet. Mosques, halal butcheries and shawarma shops are springing up everywhere.

Can we then say with any degree of certainty that the attacker or hostage-taker was a "terrorist"? Certainly the lady who told her story to Dr Labib was terrified, as were the other hostages and innocent bystanders. OK, but was the perp an Islamic terrorist? Was he a "Mohammed"? None of those whose mission is "to serve and protect" (ha!) is saying. Perhaps they are constrained by M-103, a motion of the Canuck parliament intended to stop the spread of Islamophobia, by which they mean stopping anyone from saying anything negative about Muslims.

Fortunately for seekers of the truth, a reporter went to the suspect's home and got talking to a man outside of the house who identified himself as the 25-year-old's uncle. According to the uncle, the suspect was a young child when he came to Canada from Iran with his family. Walt will update this post as the truth leaks out. For now, that's all ye know and all ye need to know.

"Naked Nisku" kidnappers under influence of "trippy tea"?

Walt promised to keep you posted on the bizarre case of the five naked kidnappers (the kidnapping is alleged, the nudity is not) arrested in the wilds of northern Alberta, Canada, earlier this week. Here's an update of our initial post, "5 naked people arrested in Alberta car crash", WWW 6/11/17.

What is clear is that five people -- one man and four women, three adults and two youths -- were found naked in a car following a crash on a rural road near Nisku, south of Edmonton AB. Three other people, barefoot but otherwise clothed, were also at the scene, having been picked up by the driver of a pickup truck (of course) who thought they needed help. (Duh!)

What is not clear is whether the pickup truck hit the BMW full of naked people, or the other way around. Even more of a mystery is what caused the five naked people to abduct the other three from their nearby home and take them for a ride. Charges of kidnapping have been laid by the RCMP, but no conviction is possible without proof of mens rea -- "the guilty mind", or criminal intent. So the question arises: What were they thinking??!!

A relative, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the minors (who have been released without charge) thinks he's got it figured out. He reckons that the Naked Nisku gang may have "unknowingly" drunk some hallucinogenic tea over breakfast! "It's absolutely crazy," said the relative. "It’s a scary thought thinking, 'Oh, let's try this tea that we purchased,' and then all sit down thinking they're just going to have a nice morning and end up in that circumstance."

The relative said he wants everyone to know the accused are not bad people. They just had some trippy tea. He said his two daughters, who are 13 and 15, and his ex-wife were having breakfast with two friends -- a man and his wife. The man had recently travelled overseas and brought back some tea from India. The relative did not know the name of the tea, which he said "kicked off the whole crazy spell."

The Mounties' version of the story is that a man, woman and baby were forced against their will from a home in Leduc County into a BMW. Inside the car were five naked people. While the car was being driven, the abducted man, who was in the trunk, managed to escape. The woman and her baby then managed to get away. The trio were picked up by a passerby, but his work truck was rammed from behind by the car. When officers arrived, they pulled out the five naked people. The adults, who were 27, 30 and 35, were arrested, but two teenaged girls were not charged.

The 35-year-old woman, who had already been released from custody, made a first appearance Thursday in Leduc court. She is charged with two counts of kidnapping, mischief damaging property over $5,000 and resisting a peace officer. The 30-year-old woman has been charged with three counts of kidnapping and one count of resisting a peace officer. The 27-year-old man, her husband, faces the same charges.

The relative said he laughed about the case when he heard it on the news, then was shocked to learn that his straight-laced daughters were involved. "I was just like, what the heck?" He visited his youngest girl in hospital, where she had been taken with some of the other suspects for treatment. They don't remember what happened, the man said. "Whatever potency that stuff had obviously is making it so it’s just a big blur," he said, adding blood tests were also taken at the hospital. "“Nothing came back like illicit drugs, so they figure it may have been some type of herbal drug or something."

He said the three people who were forced from their homes are also family friends and aren't holding any grudges. They probably opened their door that morning trying to help, he suggested. He also believes their car rammed the truck because the tea made those inside think the family had been abducted by the truck driver, not the other way around. "They were under the impression that they were saving that guy and the woman and the little girl."

Another plot twist was revealed today by Global News, from whom we got the original story. In spite of charges now being before the court, the abductees want to talk. In "Alberta family abducted by naked kidnappers frightened and baffled", they are quoted as telling Canadian Press they know the accused as neighbours, on top of which they are all members of the same Jehovah's Witnesses church. Curiouser and curiouser!

VIDEO UPDATE: 5 naked people arrested in Alberta car crash

Note from Ed.: I adapted the following story from an article with the same headline on the Global News website. I hope Global won't mind. There was nothing I or Walt could add that would make it any better, except maybe for a picture... Oh c'mon, you didn't really expect a photo, did you?

UPDATE ADDED 8/11/17 - We still don't have photos, but we do have VIDEO (albeit with the naughty bits blurred out...damn!) from a CTV newscast. Here 'tis. Turns out there's more to the story too. See update below the video.

Five people, who were not wearing any clothes, have been arrested following a two-vehicle crash in Nisku, Alberta, on Monday. The RCMP said it happened on Township Road 510 at around 9:45 a.m. Nisku is about a 30-minute drive south of Edmonton.

Sergeant Knacker of the Mounties said four women and one lucky man, all from one of the vehicles and all naked at the time, were taken to hospital and are in police custody. At the time of the crash, the temperature was about -8 C (about 18 F) in Nisku.

The Leduc general investigation section, forensic identification section, criminal collision investigation team and the collision analyst were all working on the file.

The Mounties said the investigation was "convoluted" and still in its infancy. However, they believe the collision was not accidental, and that drugs and alcohol could be factors in the collision.

UPDATE ADDED 8/11/17 - In a statement on Tuesday, the Mounties said three people -- a man, a woman and a newborn baby -- were forced from a home in Leduc County and into a vehicle. The man was stuffed into the vehicle’s trunk but somehow managed to escape. The woman and infant also managed to flee. That's when a truck driver passing through the area spotted the three and picked them up.

Derek Scott of LPH Industrial, speaking in the video, says it was his employee who came to their rescue. After they got into the truck, RCMP said another vehicle purposefully rammed the truck. The force of the collision pushed the truck into a ditch. The horsemen arrested five suspects: a man, two women and two female minors. All five were naked when they were taken in to custody. Kidnapping charges are pending against the three adults, RCMP said. The two youths have since been released.

The thick plottens! What kind of people go on a kidnapping mission naked in below freezing weather? Would Canadians do that? Errr, maybe... but let's not jump to contusions. Walt will bring you the bare facts when all is revealed in court!

Most Canadian photo EVER

Never let it be said that Walt [and Ed.! Ed.] don't pay attention to our readers' requests. [Notice the correct use of the apostrophe. We do have more than one reader. Ed.] Rufus Leeking, of Teaticket MA [You can look it up. Ed.] writes to enquire why we never post any pictures of beavers. Well, Rufus, we're happy to oblige!

This is Corporal Jason Pinder, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In his spare time, Cpl. Pinder volunteers with the Salthaven West Animal Rehabilitation Centre, in Regina SK, who gave out this lovely portrait of the nice Mountie with a rescued beaver kit. How Canadian is that!

Mounties get their goat -- a real Canadian story

Readers occasionally ask if Walt is a Canadian making fun of Americans, or an American making fun of Canadians. Let it be remembered that no-one needs to make fun of Canadians, because they quite enjoy making fun of themselves. One has only to watch SCTV's "Great White North" segments, featuring Bob and Doug McKenzie, the quintessential hosers, or watch for the Canadian jokes included in so many episodes of The Simpsons.

One of the big differences between Americans and their northern cousins is that Canucks refuse to take themselves seriously, whereas Americans take themselves much too seriously. That's a fact... a Canadian fact... brought to you by the Canadian Ministry of Facts.

Today we have the perfect example of the Canadian sense of humour in a true story from Warman SK, a crossroads remembered none too affectionately by one of Walt's agents, who passed this along.

Early Sunday morning, two Mounties from the Warman detachment were called to a Tim Hortons in nearby Martensville for an unusual disturbance -- a goat refusing to leave the store (or "coffee and bakeshop", as Tim's is called south of the border).

The RCMP issued a press release -- really -- which confirmed that "There was a stubborn goat refusing to leave the establishment. The employees would ask him to leave and walk him outside, but he would just turn around and come back in through the automatic doors."

RCMP believe the goat was simply cold and decided to sleep in the space. Store employees said the goat ambled through the parking lot, and took a nap in the drive-through at one point. Store owner Camille Barzeele said, "One of [our employees] stayed with him to make sure he didn't get run over, and the other one called the cops."

RCMP said the goat was "arrested" and taken into their cruiser. (No, the Mounties don't ride horses any more, not even in Saskatchewan.) But, they said, "He was very unhappy with this so the members decided to take him home instead of to holding cells at the detachment."


"We are happy to report that the goat is safe and sound back with his owners after his adventurous night out on the town," the press release concluded. "Employees at the Tim Hortons in Martensville see all sorts of customers overnight. This one wasn't kidding around."

How about that, eh?! But when you think about the differences between Canadians and Americans, consider how this story might have played out had it occurred a few hundred miles due south, say in the middle of Wyoming. The errant goat would surely have been shot.

In Canada, if it remained in the store another night, it would only have been taxed. That's right... a tax on real property abutting and abounding on public lands, taxed at the rate of X dollars per front foot. [Aaaaarrrggghhh! Ed.] 

Most Canadian photo... EVER!

Corporal Shaun Begg, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, stationed in Kaslo BC, posted this photo on his Twitter account. The caption reads "We may be Mounties, but we are all still kids at heart with @NHL dreams".

In an interview with CBC Radio, Cpl. Begg said no one is more surprised than he is at its explosion online.

"I'm actually very surprised...my thought was to take a photo of myself in serge with my personal camera for a personal screen saver, maybe a Christmas card," he said Begg> "I had no idea it would hit the internet and just explode."

Walt thinks it's a great photo, but warns Cpl. Begg not to be surprised if he's called on the carpet [a red carpet? Ed.] for posting a picture of an ideal Canada which is egregiously politically incorrect. No women, no vizmins, no "brought to you by the Harper government as part of the war on terror" slogan. What were you thinking, Corporal?!

"Radicalized Muslim" calls Cirillo killing an act of retaliation

Once upon a time in Libya [Great beginning! Ed.] there was a mujahideen -- a Muslim terrorist -- named Bulgasem Zehaf. Whether to flee the dictatorship of Muhammar Qaddafi or to spread its Islamist poison, Mr. Zehaf wanted to come to the West. Naturally he applied to enter Canada -- infamous then and now for its ultra-liberal immigration policies -- as a "refugee".

It wasn't long before Mr. Zehaf was welcomed into the Great Not-so-white North, where he met and charmed one Susan Bibeau, who seems to have had a soft spot (or spots) for refugees. (She is now Deputy Chair of Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board.) On 16 October 1982, Ms Bibeau gave birth to a son, whose name was recorded as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau.

The boy's parents settled in Laval, Québec, where the father ran a café. Susan Bibeau started working for the IRB as a Refugee Protection Officer in 1990. When civil war broke out in Libya in 2011, Mr. Zehaf rushed back to his native land to take part. Whether he fought for Qaddafi or against him is unclear.

Around this time Michael decided that he should follow in his father's footsteps. He converted to Islam, and applied for a Canadian passport, possibly to go to Libya, or possibly to Syria to join the Islamic extremists fighting against Assad. Because he was in contact with someone who was on the RCMP's terror watch list, his passport was held up.

Last October, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau went to Ottawa to see about his passport. Evidently it occurred to him that he could strike a blow for the Islamic jihad without going all the way to the Middle East. How? By killing a soldier, just like Martin Couture-Rouleau, who, on October 20th, killed Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent by running him down with his car. Like Zehaf-Bibeau, Rouleau was a recent convert to Islam and told a 911 operator that he killed WO Vincent in the name of Allah.

Instead of a car, Zehaf-Bibeau decided he would use a rifle. With any luck, he could kill not just a soldier or two, but maybe a couple of Members of Parliament. So he made a plan, and a video too, so that his reasons -- he wasn't crazy -- would be understood.

On October 22nd, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau shot and killed Corporal Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial in Ottawa. He then stormed into the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings, where he was killed in a gun battle with security guards while Prime Minister Steve Harper hid in a closet. For details see "Harper's Islamic chickens come home to roost".

Within 48 hours, the RCMP confirmed that they had seized the shooter's cellphone and the 73-second video which he had recorded, which they would release "soon". Then they changed their mind. (In Canada, the police are unaccountable. They don't have to say or do anything if they don't damn well feel like it.) Parliament Hill insiders speculated that the video, rather than recording the ravings of a drug-crazed lunatic, might instead say something about the Harper government's pro-Israel, pro-American, anti-Islam foreign policies. It just wouldn't do for the Mounties to let the public see anything critical of the Dear Leader!

Walt credits the Canadian lamestream media -- particularly the CBC -- and the opposition parties in the Canadian Parliament, for forcing the RCMP and its political masters to release the video after all. Well, most of it, at least. On Friday, at about the same time Sgt. Andrew Doiron was being killed by "friendly fire" in Iraq, the Mounties released 55 seconds of Zehaf-Bibeau's message. 18 seconds were edited out.

What was the message? What reason did Zehaf-Bibeau give for shooting a soldier who was on ceremonial guard duty -- with no ammunition in his rifle -- and then attacking the parliamentarians? As Walt predicted, the killer said Harper's Canada had made itself the enemy of Islam, and his actions were "in retaliation" for the country’s military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. Walt's lifetime pct .989.

Zehaf-Bibeau refers to himself as part of the Mujahideen, the army of holy warriors engaged in jihad​. Walt hopes that the Prez has seen the video, because he still doesn't seem to have got it into his head that there is, in fact, an Islamic "holy war" against the West. Of course there. But who started it? If the West had left the Muslims to fight it out amongst themselves -- it's really an Islamic civil war -- would we now have to cower in fear in our own capital cities?

Be afraid. Be very, very afraid. That was Zehaf-Bibeau's message to Harper, Obama and the rest of our so-called leaders. Here are his actual words: "Canada's officially become one of our enemies by fighting and bombing us and creating a lot of terror in our countries and killing us and killing our innocents. So [I'm] just aiming to hit some soldiers just to show that you're not even safe in your own land, and you gotta be careful.​"

Obviously the message hasn't sunk in. The loss of WO Vincent, Cpl. Cirillo, and now Sgt. Doiron makes no difference to the notoriously stubborn and arrogant Prime Minister of Canada. Just yesterday his lickspittle Minister of Defence, Jason Kenney, told the media that the government is not going to change its (alleged) mind about the (alleged) wisdom of joining the American invasion of the Middle East. The mission will be extended, and the killing of Canadians -- and Americans and Westerners -- will continue. And for what? For what?!

Lawyers warned against saying "Fuck you!" in courthouse

"A lawyer and a gentleman" -- Is it possible for one man [or woman? Ed.] to be both? The Law Society of British Columbia apparently thinks it is not only possible but mandatory. In a ruling issued last February concerning one Martin Drew Johnson, a disciplinary panel opined that "a lawyer’s conduct should reflect favourably on the legal profession, inspire the confidence, respect and trust of clients and of the community, avoid even the appearance of impropriety, and uphold the standards and reputation of the legal profession".

Agent 3, who brings this matter to our attention, feels that the LSBC may have overestimated the "reputation of the legal profession". Do we really believe, he asks, that lawyers are courteous to the point of saintliness, to the point of turning other cheek when provoked by judges, witnesses, or -- heaven help us -- agents of Her Majesty?

Turning the other cheek, it seems, is what Martin Johnson failed to do, thus "letting down the side" in the minds of his gentlemanly colleagues. Back in March of 2011, Mr. Johnson, a veteran criminal defence lawyer, was at the Kelowna BC courthouse representing a man accused of assaulting his wife. During a break in the proceedings, he asked the investigating Mountie if his client could be escorted back to the family home to retrieve a few personal items. A not unreasonable request, but the police mentality is such that whatever the defence asks, they refuse, and that's what "Officer B" did.

Before long, the two men were having a shouting match in a courthouse corridor. It was then that Mr. Johnson dropped the F-bomb. "Fuck you," he yelled at the copper.
"You don’t scare me, you big-shot lawyer," replied the Mountie. "[Saying 'Fuck you!' is] assaulting a police officer!" Mere moments later, Mr. Johnson found himself being "escorted" -- "paraded" was the word his lawyer used -- down the hallway like a common criminal.

Of course no charges -- of assaulting a peace officer or anything else -- were ever laid. Instead, Mr. Johnson found himself accused of professional misconduct, the respondent in a disciplinary hearing before a panel of the Law Society. The nub of the case is a question every courtroom lawyer must wrestle with at some point in his/her career: Is it ever excusable for counsel to curse on the job? In other words, does hurling a profanity always constitute professional misconduct, or are there circumstances in which a lawyer can be so provoked that blurting out a "Fuck you!" or other dire imprecation can be forgiven?

At least, that's how Mr. Johnson's counsel saw it. Agent 3 would concur. But the blue-stockings at the LSBC disagreed. Two of the three panel members said the only issue to be determined is whether or not the use of "Fuck you!" as an insulting interjection, spoken in anger to a witness in a courtroom hallway, constituted professional misconduct. Provocation, they said, was not an issue. Whether anything the sacrosanct police might do could push a lawyer to the breaking point, they said, was irrelevant.

So Mr. Johnson was found guilty as charged. The LSBC is still thinking about an appropriate sanction. Perhaps they will order him to write "I will not say 'Fuck you!' to police officers" 1000 times on the blackboard.

That concludes our report except for one very important thing. The majority decision of the panel contains, at Paragraph 8, an interesting disquisition on the use of the word "fuck" in contemporary society. Although they expect lawyers to be too good and proper to let the F-word cross their lips (in the courthouse, at least), the panel did acknowledge the widespread and unremarkable use of the word in the discourse of the rest of us mere mortals. Here's what they said.

Obviously, we recognize that the use of the word “fuck” in its various word combinations and permutations isn’t as taboo as it used to be. For good or for bad, it is not uncommon to hear the word in its various forms on television or in the movies. Despite the argument that it is still “profane”, we all know it is used in everyday conversation harmlessly and innocuously, although one probably would not use it with one’s mother or with small children in the room.

It is used in humour, literature and music. It is used when one stubs one’s toe, falls down skiing, makes a mistake, or even as a form of self-deprecation. It is used by athletes in sports, and by disappointed or excitable fans. It has been used by presidents, prime ministers, Nobel laureates and Academy Award winners. Its use is not going away, and nor should it. Consequently, we wish to make it clear that our decision is not meant to deny the use of a word in the English language that people may hear or use all the time, or otherwise interfere with one’s freedom of speech.

Rather, we wish to make it clear to members of the profession, that insults or profanity, if uttered in anger (whether using the f-word or not), directed to a witness, another lawyer, or member of the public in the circumstances and the place in which it was used by the Respondent, are not acceptable and can constitute professional misconduct.

What was it Shakespeare said about the law? Oh yeah...

Canuck cops, paramedics nominated for group Darwin Award

What you see here is the scene of a joint training exercise, held earlier today in Kanata ON, involving the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Ottawa Police Department, and a group of "tactical paramedics". The demonstration of "How to make a forced entry into a building" resulted in serious injuries to two of Ottawa's finest and one of the paramedics.

"Forced entries" are any entries that require more than a simple door-opening, of which all police officers are assumed to be capable. If that doesn't work, the "tactical units" -- SWAT teams, if you like -- could use a battering ram or a vehicle to force their way through a barrier. Or they could use a "controlled explosion"...if they knew how to control an explosion, which is what they were supposed to be learning today.

"Tactical paramedics" are trained, in events such as today's, for high-risk scenarios such as executing warrants, scenes where an active shooter is present, or dealing with a hostage-taking. Regular paramedics generally don’t go into these dangerous scenes until police have cleared the affected area, but tactical paramedics follow police in and quickly begin assessing the situation, dealing with injured people they encounter and administering aid.

To provide "a more real-life training experience", police seek out locations with abandoned buildings, such as the one shown, where the property owner allows them to play with fire, possibly in hopes of collecting an insurance settlement. Today's exercise got way too real, as an apparently uncontrolled explosion sent three paramedics and two cops to hospital.

Ottawa police Chief Charles Bordeleau said he couldn't comment on what might have caused the blast, since the training was being conducted under "very stringent safety protocols". The RCMP and Ottawa police are investigating each other, and the Ontario Special Investigations Unit has been called in to investigate the whole lot of them.

Until responsibility for the, errr, unfortunate accident has been properly apportioned, Walt has no choice but to nominate all participants, as a group, for a Darwin Awards Honourable Mention. Well done, those men!

Note to Agent 17: To qualify for a full Darwin Award (with bar), the surivor(s) of an incident such as this must be blown up again... and again... until dead.

Poor Len reveals what state Walt lives in

Walt and Poor Len grew up [more or less. Ed.] in a neighbourhood that looked like this -- like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. (We didn't go to the "slow school" though. Ours was red brick, for the faster kids.)

But our image of the friendly neighbourhood cop -- the image which was washed into our little brains by our parents, our teachers, the parish priest and pretty much everyone -- was much like what you see here.

The policeman was our friend! He helped us cross the busy street and generally watched over us, like a guardian angel with a gas station attendant's cap and white gloves. If you needed help, call a cop!

Times and neighbourhoods have changed. Cops have changed too, as libertarian Radley Balko (who blogs for the Huffington Post as "The Agitator") declares in his first book, Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces (PublicAffairs, 2013). Nowadays the cops you meet -- you should be so unlucky! -- look more like this.

They won't be your local neighbourhood cops either. Gone are the days when a policeman who lived in your `hood actually pounded a beat, on foot. [That's where the old nickname "flatfoot" came from. Ed.] Modern cops, when they're not in the donut shop, cruise around in air-conditioned "prowl cars"... or better yet, armored personnel carriers. Len isn't making that up. Mr. Balko says the Fargo ND police department has one, complete with rotating gun turret.

And they'll be considerably better armed and armored too. Even cops on traffic patrol wear kevlar vests and carry an awesome array of automatic weapons, tasers, pepper spray and other WMDs, all the better to subdue perps going 10 mph over the speed limit.

This all started in... wait for it... the hippy-dippy 60s, when young people started to think for themselves -- shock! horror! -- and "do their own thing", in defiance of The Authorities and Forces for Good in our society. It was the social upheaval caused by free thinkers and non-conformists that caught the attention of our politicians and led to the "get tough on crime" policies of Nixon and his successors.

The way Mr. Balko puts it, the "Silent Majority began to see a link between drugs, crime, the counter-culture and race". The problem is that it's virtually impossible not to get involved in some way with at least one of those four things. That's why the Excited States of America has such incredibly high numbers of convicts and ex-convicts, especially of the non-white persuasion.

So also, no matter what colour you are or what you're doing, the policeman who used to be your friend (LOL) now sees you as the enemy. You could be a non-English-speaker who wandered into a "secure area" of an airport because you got lost, and got tasered to death by four (4) Mounties. That happened in Vancouver in 2007 and no-one has yet been found guilty of anything. Or you could be the next Rodney King. Nuff said.

Not just libertarians but all Americans and Canadians should be concerned about the effects on our society of the militarization of the police and the criminalization -- in the minds of the police -- of everyone else. Rise of the Warrior Cop is our summer "must read".

Oh... I promised to tell you what state Walt lives in. Walt lives in a police state.

Sex crimes in the military and police: Walt has the solution

Interesting to watch the chiefs of the US Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard testifying about the sex crimes scandals in front of a Senate committee yesterday. They were flanked by countless underlings, all in dress uniform. Why, there was more salad in that room yesterday than on the buffet at the Willard.

The military chiefs were shocked, shocked to learn of the 10s of 1000s of cases of sexual harrassment and assault -- meaning everything from ass-grabbing to violent rape -- reported every year. Not to mention an equal or higher number which are not reported for fear of retribution or at least diminution of mililtary career prospects.

They were more shocked to hear that the rate of conviction in cases brought before military tribunals is substantially lower than for similar prosecutions in civil courts. Worse yet, many commanders, for reasons known only to them, set aside convictions, leaving the guilty horndogs with not even a reprimand on their records.

If these were war crimes -- like the slaughter of innocent villagers in Afghanistan -- exonerating the perps would be Standard Operating Procedure, because war is hell. But we're talking about incidents at home in the USA, not in theaters of war. And we're talking about crimes committed by soldiers, sailors and airmen against female soldiers, sailors and, errr, well, you know what I mean.

Such criminal behaviour is not confined to the US military. It's the same in police forces too. Nor is the abuse and humiliation of women to be found only in America, where notions of "gender equality" are strongest. North of the border, the famous (or infamous) Royal Canadian Mounted Police are on the sharp end of a class action lawsuit alleging serious and persistent harrassment and abuse of female Mounties.

In all the testimony as to the reasons for these crimes and what should be done to the perps, one basic point has been overlooked. It falls to Walt to point out that the incidence of heterosexual rape and other sex crimes in the military was just about nil until the 1970s. That's because until the feminists started nagging for gender equality, there were virtually no women in regular units of the police and armed forces. Security and law enforcement was a man's world!

But, the bra-burners and wimmin's libbers insisted, whatever a man can do, a woman can do too! (Walt can think of one exception but that's a topic for another day.) Not only can do, but ought to do. Including combat duty in the war zones of Baghdad or Trenton NJ.

Some old-fashioned types (like Walt) said that if you put a few even moderately attractive women in the same barracks or shelter half with men who haven't had the "comforts of home" in months (and who are bullies by nature anyway, otherwise why would they be in uniform), there's bound to be sexual tension and sexual trouble. And that's exactly what happened.

So the solution is simple. If women want to be in the armed forces, put them in segregated units, as was done before. Keep them away from the men!

Then the guys can go back to having sex with each other, if they're desperate enough. It was good enough for the Royal Navy, which in the old days was said to "run on rum and buggery". And in today's PC world, no-one's going to make a fuss about homosexual rape.

Footnote: The soldiers in the picture are Israelis. They have been disciplined for posting this photo on Facebook. Walt supposes that if US wimmin soldiers looked like this (instead of like Ellen DeGeneres) the problem would be even worse!