For Habs fans, laughter is the best medicine

According to Those Who Should Know, Monday last was "Blue Monday", the saddest day of winter, perhaps of the entire year. Crappy weather, holiday bills coming due, no holiday in store until Easter... and, for fans of the Montréal Canadiens (like the young lady at right), yet another disappointing hockey game.

Now that I have your attention... no, this is not the introduction to another moan by Poor Len Canayen. I asked him if he planned on second-guessing Marc Bergevin this week, but he said no, he'd rather shoot him, if he should catch him strolling down The Main.

He went on to say that when the news is grim, the best thing is share a good laugh, and, good fellow that he is, volunteered this supposedly true bit of testimony from a criminal trial.

Counsel: What happened after you had been listening to the music for awhile?
Witness: We got held up.
Counsel: And what happened? Would you give the judge the details of that?
Witness: Well, they told us to get up against the wall, throw our money on the floor, and drop our pants.
Counsel: And what did you do?
Witness: Got against the wall, threw my pants down, and threw our money down.
Counsel: I mean after you got up against the wall and went through -- or followed his directions, what happened?
Witness: Cracked up laughing, because one of the other guys -- guys in on it -- dropped his pants, too.
Counsel: Excuse me? One of the robbers?
Witness: Right.
Counsel: And what happened as he did that?
Witness: They told him, "Not you, stupid!" And he picked up the money.

Source: Disorderly Conduct: Verbatim Excerpts from Actual Court Cases, selected by Rodney R. Jones, Charles M. Sevilla and Gerald F. Uelmen. Illustrations by Lee Lorenz, one of the great cartoonists of the New Yorker. W.W. Norton & Co., 1987.

Canada's loony left, pro-Muslim "public" school board

There are two publicly-funded education systems in the province of Ontario, Canada. (Well OK, there are four, if you count the French-language counterparts to the two main systems, which are anglophone -- English-speaking.) There are Catholic schools, which are not quite what the name implies, since, being taxpayer-funded, they are required to admit all comers, Catholic or not. And there are "public" schools, which are supposed to be non-religious, but in practice push the new, politically correct religion of secular humanism.

The biggest public school board in Ontario -- in Canada, in fact -- is the Toronto District School Board, which is responsible for Pauline Johnson Junior Public School, in Scarberia, the northeastern ghetto of the Great and Diverse City of Toronto (John Tory, Prop.) That the school is this month celebrating "Tamil Heritage Month" tells you something about the character of the community, and the politics of the TDSB.

Pauline Johnson School is attended by students from literally dozens of different ethnic backgrounds. The majority are not "old stock Canadians", to borrow the appellation of former Prime Minister Steven Harpoon. There is not only a great mixing of races, but a great mixing of religions -- the diversity which Mayor Tory, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Prime Minister Justin "Mr Socks" Trudeau keep telling people makes Canada Strong. (Agent 3 says diversity certainly makes Toronto what it is. Whatever can he mean?) There are a few Christians, some Buddhists, some Hindus, some Sikhs and, inevitably, some Muslims.

One of the Muslim students is Khawlah Noman, who for the rest of her life is likely to be known as the "hijab hoax girl", following the unravelling yesterday of her story about having been attacked by a man who pulled back the hood of her parka, so as to cut (with a scissors!) her hijab -- an Islamophobic, anti-Muslim hate crime if ever there was one! Except there wasn't one. It was all a product of Miss Noman's vivid imagination.

OK, so the kid made the whole thing up. Some kind of plea for help, perhaps. Let it go at that. But the Toronto District School Board did not let it go at that. Today, questions are being asked about why, less than four hours after the initial police report, the TDSB organized a presser -- "press availability" is what they call it nowadays -- to let the tearful 11-year-old face television cameras and throngs of reporters who broadcast her horrific (and unlikely) story to the world?

In the photo we see Miss Noman, her mother, and her 10-year-old brother, who supposedly witnessed the attack. The concerned and caring lady comforting the girl is (((Shari Schwartz-Maltz))), TDSB Manager for Media Relations and Issues Management, who (a source tells WWW) set up the exercise in virtue-signalling. Even if the attack had happened, the appearance would have been unusual, as victims of crime who are minors are traditionally not identified by police or the media, let alone put before cameras to recite a rehearsed narrative and weep on cue.

(((Ms Schwartz-Maltz))) is no stranger to the pages of WWW. She is referred to in "Muslim prayers in Toronto schools: a Muslim viewpoint", WWW 7/7/11, defending a decision of the TDSB to set aside prayer rooms in its schools so the little Muslim kids can say their Friday prayers, while being taught about Islam and the virtues of Islamic society. This was before ISIS, so rumours that ISIS recruiting literature was passed out were likely untrue. It would have been Al-Qaeda, not ISIS.

That the Toronto District School Board is friendly to the so-called Religion of Peace is an undertatement. But hey, that's nothing more than compliance with the policy of the Ontario government (K. Wynne, Prop.) See "Islamization of Ontario schools still part of government agenda", WWW 15/4/12.

But it's not just Muslims that the TDSB likes. They're great believers in affirmative action, human rights (for some humans, at least), social justice and BLM. In a show of politically correctness, surprising even for Ontario, the Board decided, back in 2009, to set up an "Africentric Alternative School" (read: segregated school). It opened in the northwest corner of Toronto "in an attempt to reduce dropout rates and improve an achievement gap among the city's black students. While the school is open to students of all backgrounds, many [note: "many", not "all"] of the teachers are black to serve as role models for students."

The Africentric School was to be a three-year experiment. (((Ms Schwartz-Maltz))) appears again in an article in the Toronto Red Star (from which the above quote was taken) to spin the 2012 report on the results -- three years after the report was published, kinda quietly. The report found that in 2012, only 43% of students who started at the AAS and had not reached graduate age were still enrolled, while 57% had transferred to another school.

The report also identified "differences" between the original idea of the school "and the existing frameworks the school operates within," as well as funding challenges that are a "limiting factor to the school's success." (((Ms Schwartz-Maltz))) called it "a work in progress". Walt has been unable to discover whether any further progress has been made in the 2+ years since, or, indeed, whether the Africentric School is still in existence.

Speaking of affirmative action... a name that has been conveniently forgotten by proponents of the TDSB's liberal agenda is that of Chris Spence, who was the Director of the Toronto District School Board at the time of the Africentric School experiment. Dr Spence, as he then was, should have been a role model extraordinaire for the city's black yoof, being head of the biggest school board in Canada and a credit his race, yada yada yada. Unfortunately, he was obliged to resign, at the end of 2012, over allegations that his Ph.D. thesis was rife with "unattributed passages", plagiarized (copied) from other sources. When last heard from, Mr Spence was fighting for compensation for "constructive dismissal". He has not complained to the Ontario Human Rights Commission about systemic racism.

Speaking of race and black yoof, the latest politically correct folly of the TDSB is the cancellation, last November, of the "School Resource Officer" programme run for it by the Toronto Police Service. The programme placed uniformed police officers in dozens of mainly minority-majority public schools across Toronto. While SRO is SOP in many inner city schools in the USA, it was a first for Canada when introduced in 2008, a year after Grade 9 student Jordan Manners, age 15, was shot and killed at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate, one of Toronto's blackest schools.

Ever since, the SRO programme has drawn sharp criticism from activist groups such as Black Lives Matter Toronto, which made very vocal demands to scrap it as one measure to address "anti-black racism" in the education system. The Board trustees voted 18-3 in favour of cancelling the programme, after a report by staff recommended eliminating the program because "it caused some students to feel uncomfortable and even intimidated." That was in November. Last week the neighbouring Peel District School Board received a report showing that students benefit from the SRO programme in its schools. Go figure.

Every now and then militant secular humanists and anti-Catholic bigots call for the end of public funding for Ontario's Roman Catholic schools. As long as policies like those of the Toronto District School Board -- we haven't even talked about the new pro-LGBT sex ed curriculum yet -- are causing parents by the 1000s to enroll their non-Catholic children in the Catholic system, Catholic schools are in no danger of being defunded. There should be a lesson there for the public school boards, but will they learn it? Two chances: slim and none.

"Anti-Muslim hate crime" hoax embarrasses Canuck Liberals

The Canadian (and even international) media were full of outrage and virtue-signalling over the weekend over a terrible, terrible hate crime reported to have occurred in Toronto on Friday. 11-year-old Khawlah Noman was walking to school with her 10-year-old brother, Mohammed Zakariyya, on Friday morning, when she felt somebody pull down the hood of her winter jacket down. She told police the attacker smiled at her and then attempted to cut her hijab, from the bottom up, using a pair of scissors with a blue handle. He did this not once, but twice, she said, over the course of some ten minutes.

Recounting the traumatic incident in great detail, she told reporters "I felt really scared and confused. I didn’t feel comfortable about what was going on." Miss Noman got a good look at the attacker, who she described as a young Asian male, roughly 5'8" to 6', wearing black pants, a black hoodie and brown gloves. He had a moustache, the girl told police, and glasses too.

When the girl screamed, the attacker ran away. She and her brother rushed to join a group of children walking nearby, but got separated at a traffic signal. The brother didn't make the light in time to cross safely, so his Miss Noman waited for him while the group moved on. Mohammed said he watched as his sister's attacker approached her a second time, scissors in hand. What happened next is unclear, but when the kids got to school, they discovered that the bottom of Khawlah's hijab had been cut.

Speaking to reporter's, Miss Noman's mother, Samia Samad, [How come they all have different surnames? Ed.] said the incident was deeply upsetting for the children. "I don’t know why he did that," the mother said. "It’s just not Canada. I'm frustrated and I'm angry, but I do believe in peace in Canada. I am so proud to be a Canadian, and I want to give [the attacker] the same message."

Miss Noman echoed the message. While holding back tears, she said, "What you’re doing is very wrong. You should stop doing this. I'm a kid."

The chattering classes (particularly the professionals in the diversity industry) were quick to boo-hoo to anyone who would listen, particularly the liberal "reporters" at the CBC and the Toronto Red Star. And Canada's Liberal politicians, knowing a good story to promote their pro-Muslim, pro-diversity agenda, were even quicker to express their shock and horror. The Liberal Prime Minister, the proudly lesbian ["Liberal", shurely! Ed.] Premier of Ontario, and the Mayor of Toronto (not a card-carrying Liberal but a liberal all the same) condemned the attack as a shameful example Islamophobia and racism. Here are their officious ["official", shurely! Ed.] statements.

Who could argue with those sentiments? No right-thinking -- make that "LEFT-thinking" -- Canadian, that's for sure. And even if someone thought the reaction was a bit over the top, or dared to doubt the veracity of Miss Noman's horror story, Canada's notorious M-103 would likely have silenced them. (CBC censors, please take note!) But guess what? Toronto Police said today they have concluded that the incident "did not happen."

There has been no suggestion that Miss Noman and/or her family will be punished in any way for wasting Inspector Knacker's time with a false report. No-one has apologized or even expressed embarrassment for the hair-on-fire coverage the hoax -- for that's what it was -- received in the (((controlled media))).

From the Pink Palace at Queen's Park, Premier Wynne said "I'd like to thank the Toronto Police Service for their work in this matter, and I join all Ontarians in being thankful and relieved that this assault did not take place." What she didn't add, but was understood to mean, was that, although it didn't happen, it could have happened, because, as everyone knows, old-stock Canadians are hard-wired to be haters.

Further reading: "Hijab hoax girl, family owe Canadians an apology", by Anthony Furey, in the Toronto Sun, 15/1/18. Conclusion: One sad outcome of this story is that decent, fair-minded Canadians whose hearts went out to this girl may look at the next such attack with suspicion. And that one could be real. The family, the police and the school board owe us an explanation. And Khawlah Noman and her family owe Canada an apology.

VIDEO: "Peter the Roman" ready to take over from Pope Francis

Sunday is my day to catch up on my reading on topics religious, especially the parlous state of Holy Mother Church. First on my list today was "Curia Stories: The Comeback of the Cardinal Secretary of State", by noted Vaticanista Sandro Magister, in his blog, Settimo Cielo, 14/1/18. [Kudos to Matthew Sherry, who does the English translation, for coming up with the excellent pun in the headline! Ed.]

The article is about Pietro Cardinal Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, or, in political language, the No. 2 man in Rome, after Pope Francis. Of Cardinal Parolin, Sig. Magister writes, "He flies high. So high as to be now the only candidate for succeeding Francis with a serious chance of being elected pope."

If Pope Francis was validly elected -- a matter of considerable debate for many reasons -- he is the 111th pope to have headed the Roman Catholic Church. If he dies or purports to resign, and Cardinal Parolin is chosen to succeed him, he (Parolin) would be No. 112. "Pietro" is Italian for "Peter". And Cardinal Parolin is a Roman. Is he, then, "Peter the Roman"?

"Peter the Roman" is the last pope mentioned in the Prophecy of Saint Malachy (1094-1148), renowned as a great prophet. In 1139, while on his way to the Vatican to assume the post of papal legate for Ireland, he fell into a trance and saw a line of papal reigns stretching from the successor to Innocent II and extending through the centuries to the last of the line, identified as "Peter of Rome" or "Peter the Roman".

When he committed his vision to paper, Saint Malachy assigned short Latin descriptions to each pope. These mottoes usually refer to a family name, birthplace, coat-of-arms, or office held before election to the papacy. Some of the phrases are multiple prophecies, written with ingenious word play. According to his prophecy, John Paul II was No. 110. Benedict XVI is No. 111. The motto given for him is "Glory of the olive". To explain this, those who believe in the Prophecy draw a connection between Benedict and the Olivetan order. Benedict chose his papal name after Saint Benedict of Nursia, founder of the Benedictine Order, of which the Olivetans are one branch.

The next line in the Prophecy is "In persecutione extrema S.R.E. sedebit." which means "In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit." forms a separate sentence and paragraph of its own. While often read as part of the "Peter the Roman" prophecy, some interpreters view it as a separate, incomplete sentence explicitly referring to additional popes between "glory of the olive" and "Peter the Roman". Whether it refers to Benedict or Francis or Peter the Roman, there can be no doubt that Holy Mother Church is today being persecuted as never before. Every year of this century has seen hundreds, even thousands of Catholic Christians imprisoned, tortured and martyred for the Faith.

We come now to the last lines of the Prophecy of Saint Malachy. "Petrus Romanus, qui pascet oues in multis tribulationibus: quibus transactis ciuitas septicollis diruetur, & Iudex tremẽdus iudicabit populum suum. Finis."



Peter the Roman, [who] will pasture his sheep in many tribulations, and when these things are finished, the city of seven hills [Rome] will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The End.

The final pope, Peter the Roman, will likely be the Antichrist whom students of prophecy have long foretold. Satan, taking the form of a man named Peter, will gain worldwide allegiance and adoration. Even the very elect -- the leaders of the Church and all but a small remnant of the faithful -- will be deceived. And then will come the destruction of Rome, something like the vision attributed to Sister Lucia in what the Vatican alleges is the Third Secret of Fatima. And then will come "the dreadful Judge" who will judge the people. Let us not say we were not warned.

VIDEO: POTUS' "shithole" comment begs the question the liberals don't want asked... because they have no answer!

It's the epithet heard around the world. President Trump suggested, in a meeting on the subject of immigration, that some of the source countries for immigration to the USA -- countries like Haiti, whole continents like Africa -- are "shitholes". Maybe he didn't use that exact word, or maybe he did, but whatever he said has the liberal establishment, not just in America but around the world, rending its garments and hollering "racist, racist, racist!" In fact the Democrats in Congress are all set to introduce a motion of censure "to punish President Trump for his ignorant, racist words without resorting to impeachment." And yet...

And yet... all the President of the United States did was to ask, in tough terms, the question that millions of Americans (and Australians and Brits and Canadians and Germans and Swedes etc etc etc) ask every day, the question our leaders refuse to even discuss, let alone answer. It's the question I used for the headline of yesterday's post: "Why should USA accept immigrants from "shithole" countries?"

Well??? Why??? Let's be honest. [You expect honesty from liberal politicians and the (((controlled media)))? Ed.] There are certain countries, entire continents, even, which are wretched and dangerous. Haiti is one of them. The so-called Democratic Republic of the Congo is another. Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria are three more. Why are we importing "refugees" and asylum-seekers and illiterate chancers from those shitholes -- there, I said it too! -- when we could have our pick of educated, motivated migrants from traditional source countries like... well, Norway? (Big shoutout to the folks in Lake Wobegon!)

Tucker Carlson picks up that theme in this short (4:32) video. Give a listen.



Meanwhile, from out of Africa come a few voices like that of Mamady Traore, a 30-year-old sociologist in the west African nation of Guinea, who told AP, "President Donald Trump is absolutely right. When you have heads of state who mess with the constitutions to perpetuate their power. When you have rebel factions that kill children, disembowel women as saints, who mutilate innocent civilians."

Breitbart News, who published that quote, reached another African source who said that Trump had only said what many Africans say behind closed doors -- at least about the continent's most troubled nations. "The Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe are 'shitholes' run by assholes," said the unnamed source.

Ah yes, Zimbabwe. Assiduous readers will know that, having lived in that failing state for some years, I had it in mind when I wrote yesterday "I thought 'shithole' was just the right word to describe places like Haiti, Somalia, Nigeria... the list goes on. If you don't believe me, go and see for yourself."

Further reading: "The Value of Calling a Shithole a 'Shithole'", by Frances Martel, Breitbart News, 13/1/18. Conclusion: "Dismissing places where human rights abuses, hunger, and disease are rampant as 'shitholes' without offering a viable alternative for running their governments is unproductive. But silencing anyone who dares speak the truth about these places – and what that says about their ruling ideologies – is even worse."

POTUS: Why should USA accept immigrants from "shithole" countries?

Cazart! The (((controlled media))) have their hair all on fire because President Trump asked the question that millions of Americans are asking, in exactly the words millions of Americans use every day. In rejecting a bipartisan deal on immigration earlier today, POTUS questioned why the US of A would accept more immigrants from Haiti and "shithole countries" in Africa rather than places like Norway.

His pointed question startled the PC lawmakers in the meeting, and immediately revived charges that President Trump is a racist. The White House didn't deny his remark but issued a statement saying Mr Trump supports immigration policies that welcome "those who can contribute to our society."

Walt congratulates POTUS on having the stones to use the word "shithole" to describe the country/continent in question. I've been there -- to Africa that is, not Haiti -- and can confirm that the description is accurate. Haiti, by all accounts, is even worse. Those who emigrate from such places to Europe and North America do so in search of better lives for themselves. They don't come here to make our lives better. So all the President is doing is telling it like it is... at last!!!

Note from Ed.: This is a developing story. Walt may have more to say tomorrow. Right now he's making popcorn to munch while enjoying the evening news.

UPDATE added 12/1/18: The latest Tweet from President Trump says "The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used." I leave it to you, dear reader, to figure out what that means, since POTUS didn't say the word he didn't say! If he didn't use the specific word "shithole", that's too bad. I thought "shithole" was just the right word to describe places like Haiti, Somalia, Nigeria... the list goes on. If you don't believe me, go and see for yourself.

Hey "migrant"! Been on welfare? No citizenship for you!

Some 15 years ago, Walt had the pleasure of travelling, on business, in the western part of Switzerland, to Genève and the canton of Vaud. I remember it being an exceptionally clean, orderly and prosperous place, bordering on the ideal. And white. Very white. The few immigrants I met may have been from North Africa, but spoke excellent French (the language of that region) and could have passed for Swiss-born. And they were working, apparently nicely assimilated into Swiss society.

That was then; this is now. 15 years later Switzerland, like the rest of Europe, is having a problem with scruffier, darker, "refugees" and asylum-seekers entering the country across its southern border with Italy.

Some of these While Switzerland is not a member of the European Union, asylum seekers have attempted to flood into the country through the southern Italian border. Many of these "irregular" migrants come without any form of identification, making it difficult to process their asylum claim or deport those not approved for asylum status. In face, the Swiss government is unaware of the true identity of 90% of the asylum-seekers in the country. It wouldn't be a problem if they were just using Switzerland as a transit country to reach Merkeland, where German hospitality awaits them, but many are choosing to remain in Switzerland, which is safer and richer.

That such scum should be able to live for years on state handouts, even after their asylum claims have been denied, galls the good burgers of Switzerland. There has been a huge anti-immigrant backlash. Unlike the governments of the AABC countries (America, Australia, Britain and Canada), the Swiss government is actually listening to the voice of its native-born citizens, and doing something to push back against the tide of migrants by making it less appealing for them to come to the country.

Late last year, the city of Zurich voted to dramatically cut benefits to failed asylum seekers who had been given so-called "F-status", under which they cannot be deported. And now, under the sub-headline "An idea for Austria?", the Swiss newspaper Kronen Zeitung reports on the coming into force of a new civil rights act that prevents residents who have been on welfare in the past three years from becoming citizens unless they pay back to the state (read: taxpayers!) the money they received.

The previous law allowed migrants to apply for citizenship as long as they were not on state benefits at the time of their application. The new regulations will make it impossible for asylum seekers and migrants who have lived off state handouts in the last three years to become citizens, even if they have lived in Switzerland as permanent residents for the required time to make a citizenship application. The new act requires migrants to demonstrate a greater level of integration than before, including making them prove they have a certain number of Swiss friends and acquaintances. Language requirements vary by canton with most expecting an intermediate level of language proficiency in one or more of Switzerland's official languages.

What I would like to know is how the Swiss got their governments to pay attention to the threat to European culture and civilization posed by the waves of bogus "refugees" -- economic migrants, really -- who keep washing up, literally, on the northern shores of the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. It's not as if no-one's talking or writing about it. Read, for example, The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam, by Douglas Murray, recommended here not long ago. But on this subject, our governments are like the three wise monkeys. In fact they're worse. Not only do they hear nothing, see nothing and say nothing. They DO nothing! How much longer can this go on?

Further reading: "Vaticano, Papa Francesco e l'intervista bomba di monsignor Luigi Negri a Libero: 'La Chiesa si è piegata all'islam e alla sinistra'", Libero Quotidiano, 9/1/18 (in Italian) - Italian Archbishop Luigi Negri says immigration must be "rational", because uncontrolled immigration leads to the "crushing and extermination of our society.... You can't just open the doors, as if it were a party!"