How training missions work

The Canadian Prime Minister, "Call me Steve" Harper, has gone back on his word -- surprise! surprise! -- by deciding to extend the Canadian mission in Afghanistan until 2014. This came after a solemn promise that all Canadian troops would be out of the mid-east cesspit by July 2011.

But it's OK, quoth he, because the 1000 or so who get to stay will be on a "training mission". That's not the same as a "combat mission". So that's all right then.

Let Walt explain how training missions work.

What you do -- in the finest British military tradition -- is assemble a motley crew of natives and arm them with weapons. (Not the best weapons of course; maybe just some wooden dummies for practice.) Then you drill them, drill them some more, and drill them again. "One... twothree! One... twothree!"

When they have been completely drilled (as opposed to punched or bored) you lead them out into the field to test what they've learned. "A firing line, you idiots! Not a circle!"

While leading your pupils, you stand a pretty good chance of getting shot at. Six American soldiers learned this the hard way on Monday when an Afghan border police officer opened fire on them during a training mission in the east of the armpit ["country", surely. Ed.]

The shooting -- the highest toll for NATO forces since nine Americans died in a helicopter crash in September -- was the latest in a series of shootouts in which Afghan security forces have quite inexplicably turned on their NATO partners.

Walt wonders what makes Steve think the fate of Canadian trainers would be at all dissimilar. Should they pin on big "trainer" badges? Should they paint big red maple leaves on their backs so the Afghans will know they're not Americans? Would it make any difference?

More on Help Kids Canada -- one kid's story

The post with the longest "legs" on this blog was the one I wrote back in April about a self-styled charity called Help Kids Canada. Today I received from "Jesse" an account of what it's like to go door to door peddling chocolate bars for this unworthy organization. I've cleaned up the spelling and grammar a bit, otherwise this is just as he or she wrote it.

I just worked for this 'charity' or whatever, and after about 3 hours into going door to door I was cold so asked if I could go home. Our supervisor said no, it's her choice when we go home not us or our parents. We said it was our choice when to go home not hers. When we started walking away after she refused to come pick us up, she came down the road and started yelling where do you think your going. Me and my 3 friends told her we were going home. She then said "Give me my money and my chocolate and you guys can find your own way home!"

She only gave our friends a dollar each for hours of work. She ripped them off; they should have made at least 10$. She started calling us very offensive names, that wernt appropriate for children and left us stranded in some place where we had no clue where we were, in the freezing cold weather.

We had NOOOO idea this was a scam, we simply answered an add that was posted on kijiji to make some money. After this event happened, we called the police and researched information about this 'fundraiser'. I only worked for her two times and realized that she was doing this for her own benefit!

Is the story true or is someone winding Walt up? Don't know, but I don't find it hard to believe.

Swiss vote to deport foreign criminals

Haven't got time this morning to comment on the story just released by Associated Press, but regular readers won't need me to say how much I wish the USA, Britain and Canada would enact similar measures. Here's the story...

Swiss voters have approved a plan to automatically deport foreigners found guilty of committing serious crimes or benefit fraud.

Swiss national broadcaster SF1 says 52.9 per cent of voters backed the proposal put forward by the nationalist Swiss People's Party, or SVP.

SF1 reports that 47.1 per cent voted against the plan.

The deportation proposal drew fire ahead of Sunday vote from legal experts who said it could breach offenders' human rights.

Anti-racism groups also bemoaned that the SVP's posters showing white sheep kicking black sheep off a Swiss flag played on stereotypical images of foreigners as criminals.

Come to think of it, I do have a quick comment: Why does the last paragraph not surprise me? Everyone must know that to suggest that non-white foreigners are responsible for much of the crime in our society is clearly racist!

The skinny on Kemi

Already had a tip -- thanks, Agent 3! -- that there is more to the Kemi Olukemi-Olunloyo story than what she let on to the Globe and Mail reporter, as related in my previous post this morning.

Seems Ms. O-O has been working her way through the Toronto newspapers. Her moving tale was featured in the Toronto Sun in May 2009 and the Toronto Star in July 2009. Why it took the G&M more than a year to pick it up is a mystery.

Nicole Beaute, writing in the Star, puts it charitably: "Olunloyo herself has an unresolved past."

Turns out that although she has three sons, Ms. O-O has never been married. That puts her in pretty much the same boat as the many other grieving black mothers seen on the Toronto newscasts with depressing regularity.

Turns out, too, that there are outstanding charges against Ms. O-O in Georgia. There was also a charge of child cruetly in 2003 in connection with which her youngest son was taken away from her for three years.

And yes, Kemi Olukemi-Olunloyo has more than one other name [Alias, surely. Ed.] According to an assistant D.A. in Newton County, GA, Ms. O-O goes both Olukemi Olunloyo and Ashley Olukemi Olunloyo. In Toronto, she signs her news releases "Kemi" Omololu-Olunloyo. The name on her Ontario driver's licence is Olukemi Ajoke Olunloyo. In Atlanta, she sometimes used Kemi Lane.

Click here to read the rest of the Star's story on this fine spokesperson for the "black community".

Mother of three explains black crime

Meet Kemi -- real name (maybe) Kemi Omololu-Olunloyo -- a self-styled "community activist", originally from Nigeria and now living in Toronto.

Speaking in an interview with Canada's so-called national newspaper, the Globe and Mail, Ms. Omololu-Olunloyo (hereafter "O-O" for short) expressed great concern about all the gun violence she's noticed in Toronto in recent months. Ms. O-O brought with her to the meeting a tombstone-sized piece of white board inscribed with the names of the 28 Torontonians shot dead this year. By her reckoning, all but three of them were black.

What Ms. O-O didn't say clearly is that nearly all of the perps, suspected or arrested, are also black. At least, though, she didn't explain black-on-black crime away with the usual rants about systemic discrimination and poverty. What she recommends is that "the community" -- which community was not specified but we can safely assume she means black folk -- "should co-operate willingly with police to hunt down the thugs who do the killing". Yeah, like that's going to happen!

But, she emphasizes, something must be done to save these children. She says it really slowly for emphasis: “These … are … people’s … children.” Ms. O-O should know, being the mother of three sons herself. The whereabouts of the father or fathers of these children is not mentioned in the article.

Nor does Kemi explain clearly how she came to be a "community activitist" in a country to which she came only three years ago, after three decades in the USA. Buried in the middle of the Globe's article is a reference to Ms. O-O having had a spot of bother with the authorities in Georgia. Apparently there are a couple of warrants outstanding for jumping bail and violating probation.

Perhaps she came to Canada as a refugee. Isn't it great that she has been able to find "work" -- paid for by whom? -- telling Toronto how to solve its social problems. Pity that she missed the one obvious solution.

Footnote: The article from yesterday's Globe and Mail is here.

The unhappiest place in Canada

I see where Toronto is the most miserable city in Canada according to a study conducted by the Canadian Centre for the Study of Living Standards. Suspicions confirmed.

Toronto is also the most multicultural city in Canada, according to the soon-to-be-abolished long form census and many other indicators.

Could the two facts be related? Surely we should be told.

Postscript: The happiest city in Canada is Sherbrooke, QC -- not a thousand miles from where Walt's sylvan hideaway.

153

More than nine months after his death, Capt. Francis Cecil Paul, late of Badger, Newfoundland, has been officially declared Canada's 153rd fatal casualty of the war in Afghanistan.

A member of Ottawa-based 28 Field Ambulance, Capt. Paul died in February from natural causes while on leave. He was 53 years old.

In a statement, Canadian Forces General Walt Natynczyk said "Although his death came suddenly while on leave from his deployment in Afghanistan, he was still on duty and considered part of the mission, and therefore his death is no less important than any other CF member who served and died while in Afghanistan.... It is important that his name be added to the list of fallen."

RIP.