News round-up

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Stories about free speech versus human rights commissions:

The ideological crush
A year or so back, I wrote a review of Robert Ferrigno's fine novel, Prayers for the Assassin. I'd all but forgotten what I said until it turned up in the Canadian Islamic Congress's "dossier" documenting Maclean's "flagrant Islamophobia" that they've submitted to the thought police of the human rights commissions. Welcome to the new Canada, where reviewing a fictional story about fictional characters gets you hauled up in front of government tribunals. Good luck holding that society together, "liberals." At the time I reviewed it, I was skeptical of Ferrigno's premise -- that a free Western society would voluntarily convert en masse to Islam. A year on, it doesn't seem so far-fetched, not if you listen to Miss Greer; or the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding, an Episcopal priest at St. Mark's Cathedral in Seattle who says she's also a practising Muslim; or indeed the various correspondents to Canadian newspapers so anxious to sign up to the reductive definition of "free" speech understood by certain Muslim lobby groups.
Mark Steyn, Maclean's, January

Freedom such a fleeting thing, even in Canada
If I have my heart set, for whatever reason, on advertising for a female nurse, a heterosexual bookkeeper, or a Catholic janitor, there should be no legislation forbidding me to do so. Any society prohibiting such discrimination -- prohibiting it, that is, for anyone but the government itself, for public jobs or accommodation -- is no longer free.
George Jonas, CanWest Publications, January 17

Canada's wonderland
I wonder if I should make a complaint to a "Human" "Rights" "Commission" (I write sarcastically). Perhaps I could get a hundred or more journalists to go in with me. The complaint would be lodged with the "human rights" bureaucracies for Canada, British Columbia, Alberta, and perhaps Ontario -- simultaneously, the way the Canadian Islamic Congress has brought its case against Maclean's magazine for publishing Mark Steyn.
David Warren, Ottawa Citizen, January 20

What a strange place Canada is
What a strange place Canada is in 2008, where the police care more about human rights than the human rights commissions do, where fundamentalist Muslims use hate-speech laws drafted by secular Jews, and where a government bureaucrat can interrogate a publisher for 90 minutes, and be shocked when he won't shake her hand in greeting.
Ezra Levant, Globe and Mail, January 21

Fire the censors
Although the episode was virtually ignored by the mainstream media of the day, I remember it quite well because of the growing threat it posed to free speech. I especially recall that, in writing about the pro-choicers' demands, I interviewed an erudite and eloquent public-policy expert who spoke passionately about this threat. "Human rights commissions, as they are evolving, are an attack on our fundamental freedoms and the basic existence of a democratic society," the man said. "It is in fact totalitarianism. I find this very scary stuff." That person was the president of the National Citizens Coalition, a politically astute fellow by the name of Stephen Harper, a man who, of course, has now gone on to much bigger and better things. I don't think it would be too much to ask of Mr. Harper now that he put his words into action, and move to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to eliminate the commission's censorious powers. Perhaps such a move would inspire Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach and B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell to act similarly.
Terry O'Neill, National Post, January 23

Earlier: Stories about free speech versus human rights commissions

Stories about Jehovah's Witnesses and blood transfusions:

Babies taken from Jehovah's Witness parents didn't need transfusions: doctor
Four surviving sextuplets who were taken from their Jehovah's Witness parents because B.C. doctors believed they would die without blood transfusions were not in imminent danger, an expert has testified. Dr. Robin Ohls, a neonatologist at the University of New Mexico, says at the time the babies were seized, none of them would have died from low hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen.
Canadian Press, January 21

Giving sextuplets blood safest remedy, court told
A doctor who looked after a set of severely premature sextuplets in British Columbia last year says blood transfusions seemed to be the least dangerous solution to their medical ills. But the parents refused to allow the transfusions on religious grounds and the six babies were seized by provincial child welfare authorities. The parents, who can't be named to protect their children, now want the B.C. Supreme Court to rule the seizure of the babies was unconstitutional.
Canadian Press, January 23

Earlier: Stories about Jehovah's Witnesses and blood transfusions

Stories about religion and the American presidential race:

Huckabee's popularity rests on faith
Candidate lacks support outside religious right
Sheldon Alberts, Canwest News Service, January 19

Morals, Mormons and Mitt
The person across the table is as female as Hillary Clinton, twice as African-American as Barack Obama, and as Mormon as Brigham Young. This, Monica Robinson admits over lunch on a snowy day on the Inner Harbor, presents a rather unique dilemma for a religiously devoted but electorally uncommitted Latter-Day Saint.
Allen Abel, National Post, January 19

Earlier: Stories about Mitt Romney and Mormonism

Stories about the Pope's cancelled speech:

Galileo again
The components of political correctness -- radical feminism, the "gay agenda," multiculturalism and "reverse racism," extreme environmentalism, "health fascism," Darwinist scientism, and lately and most incongruously, Islamism -- do not constitute a coherent worldview. Each agenda contradicts each other, and each is internally irrational. The various interests are however united, not by what they affirm, but by what they deny or oppose, and are dedicated to destroying. Their common enemy is the Christian heritage of the West, or what is often called the "Judaeo-Christian tradition." I was quite struck, this last week, by one tiny aspect of this issue on display in Rome.
David Warren, Ottawa Citizen, January 19

Again & again
We've been discussing free speech and free press, lately, in the encroaching darkness of "political correction." In Saturday's column, I touched on the efforts made by various faculty and students at the university called La Sapienza in Rome, to prevent Pope Benedict from delivering an address at the opening of term. I said he was intending to discuss the famous trial of Galileo. I got this little nugget from mainstream media, who gathered it from the anti-papal propaganda. The pope had cancelled his appearance, to avoid a pointless confrontation with people I compared to howler monkeys (see below). But he was publishing the speech so anyone with a genuinely open mind could read it. Imagine my surprise, when the speech came out on the Internet. It did not even mention Galileo. I'd been busily defending the pope, in advance, for something he wasn't even going to say.
David Warren, Ottawa Citizen, January 23

Earlier: Stories about the Pope's cancelled speech

Stories about Sikhs and Sikhism:

Court ban on ceremonial knife draws threat of rights complaint
A Calgary Sikh says he's considering launching a human-rights complaint after he wasn't allowed through security at the Calgary Courts Centre with his ceremonial dagger this week. Tejinder Singh Sidhu, 25, says he's worn his kirpan without incident for years, including during a visit to the House of Commons in Ottawa.
Calgary Herald, January 18

Border guards want explanation in Singh case
Officers frustrated with the way situation is being handled and 'how it makes us look,' insiders' assessment finds
Globe and Mail, January 21

Singh will be deported, border agents are assured
Border agents in B.C. have been assured by their managers that Laibar Singh, a paralyzed refugee claimant from India, will be deported at some point, says the head of the national border-guards union. "It's not a question of if, but when it's going to be executed," said Ron Moran, president of the Customs and Excise Union. "That's what they have been told."
Globe and Mail, January 22

Earlier: Stories about the Sikh sanctuary claimant

Continue article >>

Stories about Islam and the West:

West didn't incite Islamic extremism, Blair says
Internal fight over future of Islam, not injustice perpetrated against Muslims, has fuelled terrorism, former British PM believes
Globe and Mail, January 18

Don't blame Islam for terrorism, expert says
A terrorist attack on the U.S. like that launched on Sept. 11, 2001 would likely have occurred even if the Muslim religion had never existed, says a former top official of the Central Intelligence Agency who now makes his home in Squamish.
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, January 18

Canadian gets life in terror plot
He was the perfect Al Qaeda recruit. The young Kuwaiti-born Canadian spoke English, was impressionable, and unsure of what to do with his life after leaving his St. Catharines home in the summer of 2000. Mohammed Mansour Jabarah's journey in the seven years since landed him in Al Qaeda's camps, introduced him to Osama bin Laden and sent him a mission he said was organized by the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Toronto Star, January 19

Canadian behind bomb plots sentenced to life in prison
A Canadian who admitted plotting to bomb U.S. embassies in Singapore and the Philippines was sentenced yesterday to life in prison after telling the court he had been "brainwashed" by al-Qaeda. Mohammed Mansour Jabarah, a Canadian citizen of Iraqi descent, was sentenced by a federal judge after pleading guilty in July, 2002, for his role in the disrupted bomb plots on orders from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Reuters, January 19

Truth so stark even deniers would see it
Iran's President Ahmadinejad could benefit from a visit to Holocaust Museum
Oakland Ross, Toronto Star, January 19

Charkaoui told CSIS about jihad recruiting
In a previously undisclosed interview with CSIS investigators, alleged al-Qaeda sleeper agent Adil Charkaoui described how members of Montreal's Arab community were recruiting people for jihad before 9/11. "Charkaoui explained that many are called but few are chosen. It's a funnel effect," according to a summary of the April, 2001, interview with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, just added to the court record.
National Post, January 23

Earlier: Stories about Islam and the West

Other stories from the past week:

Church strips saucy sign
A Brampton church has removed a sexually suggestive message from a sign in front of its building after a complaint from the public. The sign in front of Heart Lake United Church on Sandalwood Parkway East usually has inspirational messages on it, according to resident Nicole Cedrone. So as she drove home from the doctor's office this week, she did a double take when she saw the most recent message: "Lying in bed shouting Oh God doesn't constitute going to church."
Toronto Star, January 18

Missionary flees Kenya to escape violence
A Calgary man who was forced to flee his missionary post and return to Canada this week after violence erupted in Kenya said he plans to return as soon as it is safe. Daniel Howard was nine months into a planned year-long mission in Kisumu, Kenya, helping with an orphan sponsorship program and at a teacher's training college.
Calgary Herald, January 18

Quebec's 400th birthday bash is turning into a big-time bust
The Queen wasn't invited, the Pope's not coming, and as Quebec City begins its 400th birthday celebrations, it's even facing a challenge to its claim to being Canada's oldest city. Only three weeks into the festivities, the city's big 400 has hit a bumpy road that threatens to turn the planned 10-month celebrations into a major bust. Despite high hopes and heavy lobbying, Pope Benedict XVI yesterday declined an invitation to celebrate mass at a major religious gathering in Quebec City in June. Organizers were counting on the pontiff's presence to boost attendance at the International Eucharistic Congress and to draw world attention to Quebec City's anniversary party. Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Quebec, said the Vatican cited a busy schedule and health concerns for backing down.
Globe and Mail, January 18

Police investigate body at Grace Baptist Church
Calgary police are on the scene at Grace Baptist Church after a body was discovered early this morning. The death is considered suspicious.
Calgary Herald, January 18

War-crimes fugitive loses appeal bid
Michael Seifert, at the ripe old age of 83, may finally face justice for war crimes perpetrated more than half a century ago. The Supreme Court of Canada refused on Thursday to hear an appeal from the Vancouver man dubbed "the Beast of Bolzano."
Vancouver Sun, January 18
Earlier: Stories about Nazi war criminal Michael Seifert

'Too good to be true' Thomson ivory declared genuine
The visitors at the Courtauld Gallery in London stand with their noses nearly touching the glass cases containing medieval ivories, the better to see a saint's finger smaller than a grain of rice, or the howl of pain carved on a sinner's face, the circumference of a pencil eraser. What you can't tell, looking at one particular ivory from the collection of the late Kenneth Thomson of Toronto, is whether it was carved under the steady flame of a gas lamp in the 19th century or a flickering candle in a medieval craftsman's workshop. The Courtauld's John Lowden, curator of the Medieval Ivories from the Thomson Collection exhibition, thinks he knows the answer -- and it's one that might set thinking about medieval art on its ear. The ivory, called the Nativity and Last Judgment diptych, was thought to be a forgery when Thomson purchased it. Scholars and collectors believed that the diptych's complexity and craftsmanship meant that it must have been carved in the 19th century and duplicitously marketed as medieval to capitalize on the Victorian vogue for Gothic ivories.
Globe and Mail, January 18

The unsung Canadian some knew as 'Old Bones'
James Mellon Menzies, a man of God whose faith inspired him to unearth clues about the Middle Kingdom's past
Globe and Mail, January 19

The myth of the Russian soul
She treats Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977), the hero of her book, as the antidote to underdeveloped, slow-witted Russia. A member of the aristocracy, Nabokov lost everything when the Soviets forced his family into exile. Yet that was also a piece of good luck. It pulled him out of the communism that has always crippled Russia and helped him realize himself as an individualist in the West. And it's individualism that Russia needs. As Khruschcheva sees it, the old Russian ideal, derived from Orthodox Christianity, considers individualism morally inferior to the communal way of life. That thinking, part of Russia's national self-definition, is what she decided to escape when she arrived in America in 1991 to study at Princeton. In this effort at self-transformation, she made Nabokov's books her guide. He always insisted he wasn't a political writer, but Khrushcheva believes his work carries a political message for everyone who cares about the future of Russia.
Robert Fulford, National Post, January 19

Jezebel was framed
'Biblical writers were no fools. They knew what any best-selling novelist today knows: Sex sells'
Lesley Hazleton, National Post, January 19

China tries to integrate some Western thought
Universities usher in reforms by blending ancient eastern tradition with up-to-date environmental teaching
Douglas Todd, The Vancouver Sun, January 19

N.L. Anglican clergy asked to declare allegiances to Church over rift
An Anglican diocese in Newfoundland will take the rare step Monday of requiring all of its clergy to declare their allegiances to the Church, or "do the honourable thing and resign" if they support a breakaway movement that opposes same-sex unions. In a letter written to clergy last month, the bishop of the Diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador asks them to attend a mandatory meeting in St. John's to renew their licences, a move the diocese has not taken in at least 20 years.
Canadian Press, January 20
Earlier: Stories about the Anglican schism

Prophets Of Black Pride
On this Martin Luther King Day, many Americans are giddy at the prospect that 2008 might deliver a black president. Which reminds one -- in this time of Monica Lewinsky decennial memories -- of the claim made a decade ago that, in the midst of his scandals, Bill Clinton had emerged as the "first black president."
Father Raymond J. De Souza, National Post, January 21

Trustees give up credit cards as dubious expenses probed
The expenses of Catholic school board trustees are being opened to more scrutiny -- both internally and by members of the public. Responding to weekend reports of abuse, the head of the Toronto board's audit committee yesterday said trustees' corporate credit cards are now a thing of the past and their annual expenses will soon be made public.
Toronto Star, January 22

Wounded man left to die
Family prays for 'very quiet' mentally ill victim, 22, who is clinging to life after being shot in the neck
Toronto Star, January 24

Solomon had left the building
However mysterious the workings of the Almighty might be, they're apparently nothing compared to the baffling goings-on at Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board. At the Logos Baptist Church in Markham, they now know that dealing with the board can sometimes demand the patience of Job. In fact, it's probably easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is to figure out what officials there -- with their dubious grasp of parables, disciples and commandments -- are on about.
Jim Coyle, Toronto Star, January 24

January 24/2008

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