Of cats and men

My wife liked this one from her Page-A-Day cat calendar today:

Cats are independent, they don't listen, they don't come in when you call, they like to stay out all night, and when they're home they like to be left alone and sleep.

In other words, every quality that women hate in a man, they love in a cat.

- Jay Leno

Lib MP Keith Martin moves in favour of free speech

Thanks to Joanne for this post on MP Keith Martin's motion (M-446) to delete Section 13(1) of the Human Rights Act.

Bravo Keith!!

Keith Martin is my MP. I've always thought of him as a bit of an opportunistic weasel and whiner. He's run for the leadership of the Reform Party then He was a Reformer when it was a safe bet and when he later ran for the Alliance leadership was always quick to complain about his "unfair" opponents, grabbing the nearest microphone (usually the CBC) to whine. That he's no team player is epitomized by his shift jump to the Liberals - I thought they deserved him.

That said, he is VERY popular with his constituents and will be hard for anyone to beat no matter what party he runs for. Also in his favour is that he does stand up for his principles and will defend them courageously no matter how unpopular that may make him with his party. In this case, more power to him.

Anyway, I've sent him a congratulatory email thanking him for his HRA motion.

Regarding Section 13 of the HRA.

Update: Joanne's comment twigged a second thunk. Could this backfire? If the skids weren't sufficiently greased and support lined up it could easily fail. Then where does that leave us? With implicitly renewed "approval" from parliament, emboldened HRCs would be in an even stronger position to press a PC censorship agenda. That would be a big step backward. Then again I'm not sure how these private member's motion thingies work. So maybe I'm being unnecessarily paranoid.

More: Much more at Blazing Cat Fur (and), Mike Brock (with a long list of others).

Open borders

This from an American friend:

I saw a billboard sign that said:

NEED HELP? CALL JESUS

____ 1-800-005-3787 ______

Out of curiosity, I did. A Mexican showed
up with a lawnmower.

[h/t Vinney Di]

Cowards, scofflaws, appeasers

Or, "I’m from the government - I’m here to help you."

That title and subtitle would be John Findlay’s description of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Ontario law enforcement officials for their pathetic response to the plight of Caledonians who are under siege by a violent, lawless, local Mohawk Indian band and its imported agitators and "warriors".

Mr. Findlay provides an outstanding background and summary of this sorry, on-going tale of government fecklessness. An end-note says:

John Findlay, a lawyer, has brought a class action suit against former OPP Comissioner Gwen Boniface, the former Haldimand provincial police detachment commander and the Ontario Government on behalf of several businesses and property owners in Caledonia.

Where do I donate?

For more see Joanne’s Journey. Joanne has been providing exceptional coverage of this for months, and saying many of the same things.

Also.

Canada’s Charter applies to Afghan detainees?

That’s what Amnesty International Canada and the BC Civil Liberties Union are contending in federal court. As David Frum puts it to his American audience:

One reason to follow Canadian politics is that Canada's hyper-activist courts often function as a kind of test kitchen, in which the legal left can experiment with concepts before advancing them in the US.

As one of the lawyers for Amnesty and the BCCLU puts it:

"If detainees are just protected by international law, only the general decides; if the Charter applies, the courts can overrule the generals. The real difference is who can supervise the generals."

That would be one more hand tied behind our military’s back. With friends like Amnesty and the BCCLU who needs the Taliban?

I wish these clowns would take as much interest in seeing that Canada’s Charter actually applies to Canadians - as in "freedom of expression."

[via]

Update (Feb 4/08): A response to Amnesty and BCCLU. [via]

What he said.

If I had Mike Brock’s talent I’d have said what he said in this great response to Leftist critics of this excellent defense of free speech.

I’ve nothing to add, except:

HRC colluding with Warman?

Mark Steyn on Richard Warman today:

What we have here is compelling circumstantial evidence of collusion between a serial plaintiff and his enablers at the CHRC.

I've written to the federal Minister of Justice about this matter. No reply so far.

Who knew?