The Sea of Green is back

A day of protests in Iran ended in tears and arrests again, mostly due to the tear gas hurled into the crowds by Revolutionary Guards.

Foreign media was ordered to remain in their offices for 3 days and were told they were not to report on the events currently happening in Iran. Mobile networks in downtown Tehran were shut down. The internet was slowed to a crawl or didn't work at all.

All this because of a planned student protest. A protest aimed at getting the message out that the election results from Iran's last election are illegitimate and that the deaths, beatings, executions and abuses of the regime following said election would not be forgotten.

Police surrounded universities in an attempt to silence the protesters, fired tear gas into crowds and many people claiming to be witnesses have reported beatings by Basij militiamen. But the crowds were relentless and protested hard.

Without a doubt, the Sea of Green has returned.

Screw the Geneva Convention

"In no circumstances shall a protected person be transferred to a country where he or she may have reason to fear persecution for his or her political opinions or religious beliefs."
Article 45 of the Geneva Convention

Canadian officials have vehemently denied knowing that some Afghan prisoners transfered to the ANP (Afghan National Police) risk being beaten, tortured or executed since a story broke in 2007 about alleged prisoner abuse.

Peter McKay, Canada's Minister of Defense, has been quoted time and time again saying that there has not been a single documented case of torture following a transfer of prisoners to the ANP. Even as late as last month he said:
“Not a single Taliban prisoner turned over by Canadian Forces can be proven to have been abused. That is the crux of the issue.” (Halifax on Nov. 22)

But that was last month, before sworn a sworn affidavit from Colonel Steve Noonan (from 2007) was published and before corroborating testimony from Brigadier-General Joseph Deschamps and before field notes from a master-corporal also confirmed an incident. Is McKay changing his tune?

“He has said what he has said based on the advice of generals and senior officials in the department.” (Dan Dugas, spokesman for Mr McKay yesterday)

Both Canada and Afghanistan a signatories of the Geneva convention and as such should obey it to the letter. Don't get me wrong, I have no love for the Taliban, but the bottom line is that Canada is supposed to lead by example. How can we win the people of Afghanistan over when we let things like this happen. Not to mention our image on the world stage, when our Minister of Defense is out there flat out denying things and contradicting some of our most trusted military commanders?

How can Canada accuse other countries of assaults on Human Rights and mistreatment of their citizens and prisoners if we cannot guarantee that those in our custody will not be mistreated.

McKay needs to man up and face the music, no matter how unpleasant the tune may be, because this whole affair is a major blemish on Canada's reputation abroad and leaves a sour taste in all of our mouths.

Jacques Cartier screwed up...

I was talking with a good friend of mine today, a small business owner here in Montreal. For the last 25 years he's owned a guitar store and also worked on and off as a high school English teacher.

We were talking today, as we usually do, about the political climate in Quebec. With Jacques Parizeau trying to revive separatism in his new book, with the Franco-racist-Brotherhood and Unions trying to push the government to go against the supreme court and stop French and immigrant parents from sending their kids to English Private school (because they're not allowed to go to English public school unless both parents are primarily English) and talking about where the hell our money goes.

To sum up the conversation, we both live in a province that should be proud of its heritage and want to motivate others to embrace it but insteand we shove it down everyone's throat and play the victim. We live in a province where our gazillions of tax dollars seems to disappear. We also live in a province where Unions are bankrupting cities and choking government infrastructure.

My friend, as always, has very extreme views on this and he's prepared to back them up... Here's what he says: "Muchacho, if I ever find out I'm ill and I'm going to die I swear to god I'm going to burn this whole place down and move down south. Where life is simple, the government won't tax me to death and I can get a decent blowjob before breakfast."

A mutual friend decided last year to pack up, sell everything and move to a Caribbean island and live the life. So I'm guessing that this is where my friend got his idea that on the islands everyone gets head before breakfast. Either way, the point is that here we were, two tax paying french born citizens contemplating on the ways our government screws us on a daily basis.

My friend lights a cigarette and looks at me and says: "When Jacques Cartier discovered this place, he should have just kept going south. He really screwed up..."

Chairman Mao, The Abe Licoln of Asia?

In a press conference held by China's communist party prior to the long awaited arrival of US President Barrack Obama equated China's invasion of Tibet in 1959 to Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves in America.

That's right folks, the communist regime that limits speech, screens the internet, massacred people in Tienanmen Square and portrays the Dalai Lama as a "violent separatist", did not in fact (as well all previously thought) annex the peaceful nation of Tibet in 1959. No, we were wrong, they liberated Tibet from under the oppressive thumbs of the Nobel Peace prize winning Dalai Lama.

It's a good thing that China's government is there to clear things up for me, because up until this point it appears that I had misinterpreted the photos of Chinese soldiers executing monks in the streets and burning buildings; it appears that world news agencies also doctored the footage of Chinese military violently silencing peaceful protesters in Tibet prior to the Olympics.

China is entitled to their opinion on the matter and I'm glad that it is being shared with us, especially prior to the arrival of the "leader of the free world". Because, to paraphrase Beijing: "The President should really understand China's point of view, seeing as how he is black and black people were slaves... And they were liberated right? So yeah, that's what we did in Tibet! Only we just thought of it now, like 60 years after the invasion...sorry I meant Liberation. See? We really care about the people of the world. So Mao is a really cool guy, no worries there."

For my part, I'm just not buying what Beijing is selling. Mao might be a lot of things but the one thing he is not is a caring liberator of oppressed people.

Thursday Morning Stupidity

While I was sitting at my laptop writing a post (unpublished as of yet) recapping my Remembrance Day with my grandfather so total asshole decided that he would rob the Legion in Scarborough Ontario of the money that veterans collect with the yearly sale of Remembrance Day poppies.

The Globe and Mail reported an armed man entered the basement of the Legion building where veterans were counting the donations received in the annual Remembrance Day campaign. He pointed a gun at an 84 year old veteran and demanded all the "bills".

The veteran lunged at the man with the gun and tried to subdue him, with the help of another veteran, who was 64, the intruder dropped his gun and fled on foot.

I'm not sure what kind of idiocy compelled the would be thief, I mean really... Is there no respect left in this world that someone would rob elderly war veterans of the money they collect for charity? And to do it after the one day of the year the entire nation stops to honor them?

I sincerely hope the police catch this man, put his face on the news and make sure that the entire country knows who he is.

For my Grandfather....

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
— Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)

I'm outta here....