The case of  burkha rights in Quebec…

Two solitudes and the niqab

The case of Naema Ahmed, the niqab-wearing woman who was expelled from a French-language class in Montreal, has turned into a cause célèbre across the country. It is a fascinating story about reasonable accommodation, competing rights and where we ought to draw the line on tolerance in a democratic society.

Naema Ahmed, a 29-year-old pharmacist from Egypt, joined a language class for immigrants last August. She insisted on wearing a face veil and she sat at the back of the class so that the men wouldn’t be able to see her. (There were three men in the class of 20). For private instruction, she would retreat to a corner with the female instructor.

Tensions reportedly mounted in the class, which was also designed to help integrate the students into Quebec society. The next part of the course required the students to sit around a U-shaped table and converse. She didn’t want to do it because of the men. The school couldn’t guarantee her another female instructor. It also decided she couldn’t be taught properly unless the instructor could see her mouth. So it asked her to leave. “We tried certain arrangements, but the demands just became too great,” said the school’s head, Paul-Émile Bourque.

Some time after that, Ms. Ahmed filed a complaint with Quebec’s human-rights commission. She also joined another language class. This week, she was called out of class again and invited to either remove her veil or leave. She left.

“There is no ambiguity about this question,” said Quebec’s immigration minister, Yolande James. “If you want to [attend] our classes, if you want to integrate into Quebec society, here are our values. We want to see your face.”

Meantime, in the other solitude, Quebec authorities were widely being compared to the Taliban.

“[T]hrowing women out of school … sounds like something that happens in the wilder reaches of Kandahar,” opined the Montreal Gazette.

“What part of the word ‘freedom’ does Quebec not understand?” wondered Naomi Lakritz in the Calgary Herald. Quebec, she said, “is fast becoming the most hostile province in Canada for anyone of a minority culture or religion.” The Winnipeg Free Press observed that “the Canadianization of Naema Ahmed has been sadly set back.” (Others might maintain that her decision to lodge a human-rights complaint shows she’s coming along quite nicely). And The Globe and Mail said, “It may be practised in some Arab and west Asian countries, such as the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan, but empowering state agents to enforce dress codes and bar the education of women is hitherto unknown in Canada.”

I have always been for more of a melting pot situation for immigrants… than with the Canadian method of encouraging immigrants to hold on to their country’s heritage. Our method encourages ghettos and isolated communities.

The reason you move to Canada (or any country for that matter) is that you appreciate the country’s values and opportunities. If you want everything in your new country to be the same as your home country, you’ve got to ask why did you move? What happens when women wear something offensive (shorts?) in a Muslim country. (Yes a burkha or niqab is offensive.)

You’d think that women moving to Canada would appreciate the hard-fought rights that our women enjoy… like showing your face in public.

photo credit: alphadesigner

Winnipeg Free Press:

Students who filmed two suspended teachers performing a lap dance at Churchill High School and posted the event online could face serious disciplinary action.

The students appear to have violated Winnipeg School Division’s zero-tolerance policies forbidding use of cellphone cameras and other devices in schools.

School board chairwoman Jackie Sneesby refused to rule out punishment for the students Monday.

“We haven’t finished the investigation. It (disciplining students) hasn’t been discussed yet,” Sneesby said in an interview. “It isn’t anything we would do without thinking about it.”

Teachers Chrystie Fitchner and Adeil Ahmed have been suspended with pay after being filmed performing a lap dance — including simulated oral sex — at a school spirit event in the school gym two weeks ago.

Sneesby would only say the senior administration’s investigation was not completed yet.

Great case of diverting the attention to the victims.

Thank you, Canada:

For being such good hosts.

For your unfailing courtesy.

For your (mostly) beautiful weather.

For scheduling no more than 60 percent of your float plane departures at the exact moment when I was trying to say something on television.

For not seeming to mind the occasional (or constant) good-natured mimicry of your accents.

For your unique TV commercials — for companies like Tim Hortons — which made us laugh and cry.

For securing this massive event without choking security, and without publicly displaying a single automatic weapon.

For having the best garment design and logo-wear of the games — you’ve made wearing your name a cool thing to do.

For the sportsmanship we saw most of your athletes display.

For not honking your horns. I didn’t hear one car horn in 15 days — which also means none of my fellow New Yorkers rented cars while visiting.

For making us aware of how many of you have been watching NBC all these years.

For having the good taste to have an anchorman named Brian Williams on your CTV network, who turns out to be such a nice guy.

For the body scans at the airport which make pat-downs and cavity searches unnecessary.

For designing those really cool LED Olympic rings in the harbor, which turned to gold when your athletes won one.

For always saying nice things about the United States…when you know we’re listening.

For sharing Joannie Rochette with us.

For reminding some of us we used to be a more civil society.

Mostly, for welcoming the world with such ease and making lasting friends with all of us.

Also, to the American Hockey team… Thanks for coming.

They caused a bit of a ruckus, but you can’t fault them for showing how Canadians party.

IOC to investigate Canadian women’s celebration.

After being told of the celebrations by a reporter, Gilbert Felli, the IOC’s executive director of Olympic Games, said, “I don’t think it’s a good promotion of sport values. If they celebrate in the changing room, that’s one thing, but not in public.” Of course, no one would ever see footage or pictures of the women celebrating in the same matter inside the locker room. No, definitely not. It isn’t like it was a huge event for Canada whatsoever. We’d just have to rely on second-hand stories and Zapruder-like footage in years to come when remembering the vivid Canadian celebration in front of their country.

The one sticking point with the IOC was the fact that Marie-Philip Poulin, who’s 18 years old, was part of the celebration and not legally old enough to drink in British Columbia.  She doesn’t turn 19, legal age, until next month. OK, fair enough for that. But what sort of punishment would the IOC give to Canada, one its two world powers in the sport? Or is this just a PR case for them to continue to be ahead of the National Football League in keeping the fun out?

To calm down the IOC, Hockey Canada released a statement apologizing for display:

“The members of Team Canada apologize if their on-ice celebrations, after fans had left the building, have offended anyone,” the statement read.

“In the excitement of the moment, the celebration left the confines of our dressing room and shouldn’t have. The team regrets that its gold medal celebration may have caused the IOC or COC any embarrassment.

“Our players and team vow to uphold the values of the Olympics moving forward and view this situation as a learning experience.”

This will blow over like the Miller mask issue once the IOC actually looks at what they’re “investigating” here and understands how ridiculousness they look yet again.

If you’re currently not employed by the IOC and can handle it, the Canadian press has a small gallery of photos of the celebration.

The complete photo collection is here.

With the historic medal tally comes another historic feat:

Rowdy curling crowds; spontaneous street parties; public drunkeness. You don’t have to look far for evidence that the crowds at Winter Games in Vancouver know how to have a good time.

And, as if anymore proof is needed that a wild Olympic atmosphere permeates B.C.’s largest city, now there’s an apparent condom shortage.

That’s right. As you read this, an emergency shipment of condoms is desperately making its way across Canada to the West Coast city.

Health officials in Vancouver have already provided 100,000 free condoms to the roughly 7,000 ahtletes and officials at the Games. That’s about 14 condoms per person. But as of Wednesday, those supplies started running dangerously low.

So naturally, the Canadian Foundation for AIDS research decided to step and make sure there were no hitches in Olympic action.

“When we heard about the condom shortage in Vancouver, we felt it important to respond immediately,” said Kerry Whiteside, CANFAR’s Executive Director. The organization assembled three large boxes of about 8,500 condoms, much to the relief of libidos at the Olympic Village. They’re expected to arrive on Thursday.

Free condoms first started to be distributed at the Olympics in Barcelona at the 1992 Games. This appears to be the first time that a shortage has struck the Games.

photo credit: George Eastman House

“Vancouver City” video created by Innerlife Project and TimeLapseHD

Go Canada!!

The train actually isn’t that bad… maybe because the Olympics have kept our bums off the train.

And that green stuff along the tracks.. it’s almost  back. Spring is here. The rest of Canada should see it in a few months.

His argument is getting more animated, and his facts are getting fuzzier. Give him his way and we’d all be exterminated.

As the Grey Lady brings up the subject none of want to hear about until after Canada wins Gold in hockey.

A $1 Billion Hangover Awaits an Olympic Party

Organizers insist the operating budget will break even. But that forecast includes $423 million in emergency money from the International Olympic Committee, and detailed financial information will not appear until after the Games are over.

As for Vancouver’s municipal government and the taxpayers, the bad news is already in. The immediate Olympic legacy for this city of 580,000 people is a nearly $1 billion debt from bailing out the Olympic Village development. Beyond that, people in Vancouver and British Columbia have already seen cuts in services like education, health care and arts financing from their provincial government, which is stuck with many other Olympics-related costs. Many people, including Mrs. Lombardi, expect that more will follow.

While the mood in the city has picked up since the start, when many people were suffering a severe case of buyer’s remorse, the looming budget realities make it unlikely that all will be forgiven or forgotten.

“While it’s very hard to see all the costs, I think people are going to pay for it for a long time,” said Lee Fletcher as he walked past several flowering cherry trees near his apartment outside Stanley Park, a large tract of forest tucked up against the city’s downtown. “Some people are going to benefit hugely, not the average guy. The average guy is going to see his taxes increase.”

Let’s hope the positive reviews of the Olympics translate into the crowds coming to Vancouver this summer.The protestors seem to have gone away and the party is in full gear.

We all know what happens after a great party… just don’t tell us until we are sobered up.

photo credit: TylerIngram

Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. John Murtha dead at 77.

John was best known for his pork he brought home to PA, including his airport that may now get more traffic from this link, than it does passengers.

The John Murtha Johnston-Cambria County Airport got an estimated $150 million in federal funds that he steered to it.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington labeled him one of the “most corrupt” members of Congress.

Murtha gave no ground. “If I’m corrupt, it’s because I take care of my district,” he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in March 2009. “My job as a member of Congress is to make sure that we take care of what we see is necessary.”

PA is going to feel the hurt.

The group We Are Change Vancouver tries to set off alarm about our terror threats. Call it the Canadian Alex Jones.

Unlike 911 – THIS TIME WE WILL DEMAND A REAL AND PROPER INVESTIGATION NO MATTER WHERE IT LEADS !!!

PLEASE HAVE RECORDING DEVICES and VIDEO CAMERAS ready at all times if your in Vancouver for the next 3-6 weeks.

More nutty stuff:

There are some strange things going on in Canada these days. Especially when out of the blue, the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper suspends Parliament until March 3rd, and then a company called Kinder Morgan looses 2 Tons of Ammonium Nitrate in Vancouver where the 2010 Olympics are due to take place in February.

Both these events happened after the plutocracy lost their bid for a global consensus and binding agreement to control a new Carbon derivative market that would have affected every person on the planet through taxation.

It also comes as the US Government expands their aggressive wars into Pakistan, and Yemen, but also as the European Union becomes a reality, a new trading block has emerged, (B.R.I.C.) and the economic recession is deepening.

Will there be a false flag event in Canada? Is the North American Union about to be created?

The truthers are growing… there are a lot of these people on YouTube.

Let the Games  begin.