VIDEO: Wally Award winner: TV commercial of the year

We got off to a really slow start this month, so have to kick it into overdrive [Wut dat? Ed.] to post something about the many things we have to take care of before the yearend. Today we present the coveted Wally Award for best TV commercial of the year. And the winner is... drum roll... "Dinner Party at Chuck's Roadhouse". Here `tis...

Credit where credit is due: Chuck's Roadhouse primarily works with Ajax Creative for their advertising, especially for major campaigns such as "Legend of Chuck" and their Super Bowl ads. They also collaborate with other production houses like Minifridge Media for specific video projects, such as their "Life's Open Roads" commercial series. Chuck's also has an in-house marketing team to take care of franchise support and local marketing initiatives.

Make up your own caption

VIDEO: Holiday treats on "The Delicious Dish"

Ed. here. Walt needed a few days off to get into the Christmas spirit. Boy, did he get into it! Ma Nifkin's Jellied Gin is strong stuff! But he has recovered now, and will write thoughtful and clever thoughts about politics and religion as soon as there's anything worth writing about.

Meanwhile, `tis the season for saccharine-sweet Hallmark movies and other mind-numbing Christmas shows on the idiot's lantern. Today we bring you a Christmas classic, from the Saturday Night Live Season 24 Christmas show, which aired in 1998.*

In this skit, National Public Radio hosts Margaret Jo McCullin (Ana Gasteyer) and Terry Rialto (Molly Shannon) welcome baker Pete Schweddy (Alec Baldwin) to "The Delicious Dish" to discuss his famous holiday dessert: Schweddy balls.

* Can you believe that SNL actually called it a "Christmas show"? That was 27 years ago, when they were only leftish, not yet totally woke. Since then, this bit has been viewed on YouTube nearly 10.5 million times!

Walt is snowed in and snowed under

Murdered by injustice

Just because it's a stereotype doesn't mean it's not true.

Poor Len Canayen looks at the Habs at Thanksgiving

Ed. here. It's axiomatic in the NHL that if your favourite team isn't in playoff position by the end of American Thanksgiving weekend, they're going to hit the golf links in April. Here's our National Sports (as long as it's hockey) Editor to tell us how the Montréal Canadiens are faring? Will they be in the post-season this coming spring?

Tank youse, Hed. The quick answer to your question would be "Le Canadien sera là!"... but the Atlantic Division has been so tight this season that the conventional wisdom may not hold. Only 10 points separate the first-place Tampa Bay Lightning from perennial cellar-dwellers, Buffalo Sabres.

La Sainte Flannelle are in 3rd place, the last guaranteed playoff spot in the Atlantic, with a record of 13-8-3 and 29 points, an average of .604. That's one more point than the Ottawa Senators. 

If the playoffs started tomorrow, the Habs would meet their long-time rivals, the Boston Bruins. What a match-up that would be, just like old times. But can the Canadiens hold onto their position? They were on fire in October and the first week of November, but then got hit hard by injuries and only this week seem to be pulling out of a slump. As imjured players -- Patrik Laine, Kirby Dach, Alex Newhook and Kaiden Guhle -- return... or not... coach Martin St-Louis will have to make some changes to the lineup to keep the team competitive.

Forwards: The injury to Laine turned out to be a bit of blessing, relieving the coach of the headache of figuring out what to do with him. He started on the second line with Ivan Demidov on the right and Dach in the centre. Laine scored some goals, true, but the lack of cohesion with the other two was evident and he was dropped down to fourth line before getting injured. Don't be surprised if he gets traded or sent to Laval for "reconditioning". He won't be missed.

A revamped second line centred by Newhook, with Juraj Slafkovsky and Demidov on the wing, seemed to work well until Newhook went to the infirmary. But it left the question of who to put on the first line with Cole Caufield and Captain Nick Suzuki. Recently the choice has been Zach Bolduc, who was hot for the first week of the season and then kind of disappeared. He has scored in the two most recent games but doesn't look like a top-line guy from where I sit.

Demidov, like Lane Hutson, has been a treat to watch, if maybe a bit too flashy. Just shoot the puck, eh! But the line of Slafkovsky and Demidov with Oliver Kapanen at centre is OK and will improve as Demidov improves. The 3rd-line veterans Brendan Gallagher and Josh Anderson, are getting older and slower but are doing well enough with Jake Evans between them. They'll be fine when Dach gets back.

The bad news is that the players named above are about all the Habs have up front. Centre Joe Veleno has turned out to be a dud, with one only goal and -9. Five forwards, who we'll leave nameless to protect them from embarrassment, have been called up from Laval and haven't made any appreciable difference. The Habs will be lucky to have three decent lines, once the injured recover.

Defence: Kaiden Guhle has been missed. When he was playing, either Arber Xhekaj or Jayden Struble could be left to watch from the press box and the D-corps would still be OK. Until Guhle gets back the coach has to play them both, and Xhekaj is more hindrance than help. He likes to hit, he likes to fight, and he likes to shoot the puck, albeit wildly. He has one only assist and is -6. Not a guy you can depend on to support a struggling goaltending tandem.

The other defencemen are doing as well as can be expected, perhaps better. Veteran Mike Matheson is having his best year yet and just got rewarded with a 5-year contract extension. Noah Dobson has proved to be a good acquisition and is warming to his role as quarterback of the second power-play unit. 

Alex Carrier is underrated -- unspectacular but reliable. Lane Hutson is the opposite, although I don't want to be too critical of someone who is so much fun to watch. Look up "puck control" in the hockey dictionary and you'll see his picture. One can compare him with Demidov, but the risks that a forward take often backfire on a D-man.

Goaltenders: I left the difficult topic for the last. In October we were full of hopes for Jakub Dobeš, and full of disappointment with Samuel Montembault  In his first three starts,  Dobeš has a GAA of 1.0, and looked likely to take the starter's spot, leaving Monty as the backup. Now the goalies, instead of being 1A and 1B, look more like 2A and 2B. Help!

Dobes is 8-3-2 with a GAA of 3.22 and a save percentage of 0.888, Montembault's numbers are 5-5-1, 3.49 and 0.864. How caN a team with that kind of goaltending be in third place in their group, with a differential of -3? Beats me! I can only say that if they're going to make the playoffs, the Habs will need to find another goalie.

Kaapo Kähkönen, down in Laval, has never in his NHL career been much more than a backup goalie. The hot prospect is Jacob Fowler, who's been on a tear with the Rocket. But... he's in the first year of a 3-year entry-level contract, and he's supposed to play in Laval until his skills are fully developed! Can Montréal take the risk of bringing him up to the big club too soon? Or could he prove to be the next iteration of goalie superstar Ken Dryden? Stay tuned.

Note from Ed.: We regret that space does not permit us to conclude with Poor Len's prediction. 😉 Watch this space.

Your Singhs today (marriage/immigration fraud edition)

To understand this story properly, you need to know that all Sikh men have "Singh" as either a middle name or a surname. "Kaur" is a common name for Sikh women. 

An Ontario man who admitted to participating in two ‘sham’ marriages to help Indian women immigrate to Canada in return for services and cash has failed in his efforts to prove he's married to the mother of his three children. 

Amratpal Singh Sidhu asked Ontario's Superior Court of Justice for a declaration that he's legally married to Amandeep Kaur. She was looking for a judge to say the opposite. Neither party divulged why it matters if they’re married or not. In a decision released on 12 November, Madam Justice Frances Wood wrote, "He openly admitted to participating in two ‘sham’ marriages, for financial gain and in an effort to dupe Canadian immigration authorities.

"For many years, he declared himself single for income tax purposes and, when transferring real estate, declared that he was not a spouse, which allowed him to transfer the properties without (Amandeep Kaur’s) consent. But, as (Sidhu) has made a claim for equalization in his application, this court infers that the importance relates to that claim – if the parties are not legally (married), he has no equalization claim."

An "equalization claim" is a legal process in Canadian family law where spouses seek a fair division of the property and debts accumulated during their marriage. 

The court heard Sidhu and Kaur met while they were both working at Toronto's Pearson International Airport, which frequent travellers know is staffed almost exclusively by Sikhs who live in the nearby Malton area of Brampton ON. "Both were residents of Ontario," said the judge. “They agreed to travel to India to get married. The wedding plans were made while the parties were in Ontario, and they then travelled together from Ontario to India shortly before the ceremony."

Both of them agree "that they participated in a traditional marriage ceremony in India on December 4, 1997," the judgment continues. Shortly after that Mr Sidhu "travelled to a nearby town…where he participated in what he refers to as a ‘sham’ marriage ceremony."

Mr Sidhu testified that "in exchange for care being provided to his ailing mother, he participated in this fake wedding to assist the ‘bride,’ Karamjit Kaur, in immigrating to Canada." Mr Sidhu and Karamjit Kaur divorced in Ontario in January 2001. "Despite (Sidhu’s) characterization of the second marriage as a ‘sham’, the fact is that it has been formally recognized in Ontario whereas there is no formal recognition nor registration of the parties’ alleged marriage either in Ontario or India," the judge wrote.

"The parties agree that polygamous marriages are not permitted pursuant to the Hindu Marriage Act. (Sidhu) cannot, therefore, have been married to both (Amandeep Kaur) and Karamjit Kaur." Mr Sidhu travelled to India again in 2022 "where he participated in yet another allegedly ‘sham’ marriage, once again with the aim of assisting the ‘bride’ in immigrating to Canada. This marriage was to Harjit Kaur. According to (Sidhu) Canadian authorities were not persuaded of the validity of the marriage and Harjit Kaur never did immigrate to Canada. There is a marriage certificate evidencing this marriage.

"Much was made by the parties as to whose idea the 2022 ‘sham’ marriage was. (Sidhu) insisted that Harjit Kaur is (Amandeep Kaur’s) cousin, and that (Amandeep Kaur) had been promised $40,000 to assist in the immigration process. He testified that (Amandeep Kaur and their child) were present at the ‘marriage’ ceremony. (Amandeep Kaur) denied this."

On several occasions between 2000 and 2017, the judge continued, "(Sidhu) described himself as single and common-law on Income Tax filings and when transferring real property." Amandeep Kaur "described herself as married in her 2018 Income Tax Return, but as single in the other returns available to the court.

"She made some attempt to demonstrate that the relationship was ‘on and off’ to argue that they did not live together ‘as a married couple’ but does not deny that the parties lived together for at least some periods of time following the marriage. They have three children together. It is not necessary to determine that the parties lived together continuously from 1997 until their final separation."

Mr Sidhu alleges Amandeep Kaur "deliberately claimed that she was single and insisted that he do the same, to maximize her entitlement to certain tax benefits and credits. He testified that he declared himself single on income tax and real estate documents at (Amandeep Kaur’s) insistence."

Surprisingly, considering that this is a Wokontario court, the judge had concerns about the credibility of both parties. "Neither may rely on their own fraud to bolster their own position with respect to the validity of the marriage," Judge Wood said. "Where the court is left in serious doubt as to the credibility of either party, it must have resort to any uncontroverted evidence. Undisputed documentary evidence is particularly helpful."

When they returned to Canada in 1997, "both declared themselves single to different authorities. At no time did either obtain any sort of formal documentation recording their marriage." And "significantly," Mr Sidhu "married Karamjit Kaur immediately after the ceremony with (Amandeep Kaur). "That marriage has been considered to be valid by an Ontario court when it granted a divorce, a process in which (Sidhu) participated. Since polygamy is not permitted in India, (Sidhu) cannot have been married to both (Amandeep Kaur) and Karamjit Kaur. Whether the second marriage was entered into for immigration purposes or not, that is the marriage that (Sidhu) chose to have formally recognized."

The judge noted that "a valid marriage certificate has been produced" for when Sidhu "married yet again" to Harjit Kaur. Even if Amandeep Kaur "was an active participant" in that wedding, that doesn't help (Sidhu)’s case," the judge wrote. "Rather, it bolsters the conclusion that both understood they were not legally married. Neither party entered into the December 4, 1997 marriage with the intention that the marriage would be considered legally valid in Ontario."

So confusing when all the Sikhs have the same names. It must be fun in Canadian jails when the warders call out "Singh!" and everyone in the cellblock answers!

Innocent question: Will any of the parties to this fraud on the Canadian immigration system [sic] ever be deported? According to Statistics Canada, the odds of deportation orders being enforced are about 99 to 1 against!