B.C. Human Rights Commision - They Ought To Be Ashamed

I sent these guys the following email [slightly edited in this version to correct typos, and to improve the original letter]. They have attained some notoriety over past months because they have instituted the prosecution of a Canadian magazine, Macleans, for running an article about a book written by Mark Steyn about the possible impact of Islamo-fascism on Europe and beyond, because the book might expose Muslims in Canada to negative attitudes due to the extreme aspects of their religion.

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"I am not surprised, but am saddened because of your ignorance concerning the threat of Islamo-fascism to the modern world and to Europe and North America in particular.

First of all, please know that I used to be the outside lawyer for a Canadian provincial Human Rights Commision in the 70's and early 80's, and, consequently understand what the advocy role of a Human Rights Commision, as opposed to that of a tribunal, should be. I am appalled that your statute allows HR Tribunals to accept un-supported hearsay statements and ignore truth as a defence against charges laid under that statute. Vive la fascisme, eh!

Nevertheless, I want to tell you that I have read the entire book written by Mark Steyn from which excerpts were taken by Macleans. I have also read many other articles and news reports from the US, Canada, the UK, Holland, and elsewhere, including the book entitled, "Infidel" by Ayan Hirsi Ali, a Muslim woman originally from Somalia, driven out of Holland by threats of murder by Islamo-fascists, who reports in grim detail the problems with the religion itself as exacerbated by the extreme versions of it promulgated by the Islamo-fascists as philosophically represented by the Wahabists, especially via the teachings spread by many of the schools of extremism and terror called "madrassas" located around the world.

You and your people may not have not read this material. You have an poor understanding of the Muslim world view and of the basic teachings of Mohammed, the prophet. You see the world through the rose-colored glasses of Western non-value [relativistic] oriented liberalism.

The major problem is that the basic tenets of the Muslim religion consists of a collection of very extreme views, centered in a medieval value system and worldview based on a warrior-oriented, expansionist and violent concept of advancement of the religion. On the positive side, it is certainly clear that many adherents of the religion do not ascribe to the violent and dangerous basic tenets of Islam, however, many of them do nothing to expose or combat them. By and large, the extremes of Christian fundamentalism resemble Muslim extremist notions, however, Christianity is not NOW still mired in a medieval, warrior-based expansionist mindset. Therein lies the very real difference between the two religions.

Have a look at the NYT article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/world/africa/23algeria.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin, as well as many of the other articles and books on the subject before going off half-cocked at you have done. You ought to know better, but clearly have not taken the time or made the effort to enlighten yourself. Perhaps your relativistic liberal attitudes prevent you from believing those things you might read that contradict your world view."

Massachusetts Victimizes Innocent Employee

I cannot resist commenting on the callous and vicious treatment accorded to an innocent employee of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Department of Industrial Accidents. Not only did they fire him and charge him criminally based on invalid "evidence" of placing child porn on his departmental laptop, but, as is usually the case with governments, they continue to refuse to apologize and to put things right, despite the horrible impact such false charges have had upon his life, including his reputation.

As well, they did not do any investigative due diligence before taking such actions, and his ass was only saved [the criminal charges were dropped for lack of evidence] because he hired a forensic investigator to demonstrate that his employer gave him a laptop already infected with viruses and malware that caused the laptop to visit internet child porn sites. Apparently, the only place porn could be found on the computer was in the Internet Cache. The investigator was able to prove that this occurred as a result of malware causing the browser software to visit such sites.

No doubt, many people may refuse to believe such a thing can easily happen. Another computer expert who confirms the claims of the forensic investigator says:

"I have a demo on my web site of how to do "preloading" in javascript. Is javascript enabled in your browser? If so, my demo shows how I can create a web page that quietly downloads images from arbitrary URLs, without showing them to you. This may be used to load those images into your browser's cache. It has valid uses, such as to speed up subsequent downloading of other pages from my site which use those images. But I can just as easily fill your browser's cache with porn. Unless you know how to scan your browser's cache (or have the sense to purge it frequently), you'll never know what I've done to you. My code (actually my web server) also tells me your IP address, which I can use to send the authorities in to examine your browser's cache.

I'd be willing to testify in court how easy this is. And give the court a copy of my code (though they could easily download it from my web site ;-)."

Back to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Department of Industrial Accidents. They have once again shown how stupid and vicious politicians and bureaucrats often are when dealing with the public and their employees. There is no excuse for such behaviour. They could have done the due diligence necessary to fully investigate the basis for a possible case against Mr. Fiola, but they did not. Why?

My long experience with government bureaucrats, police, and politicians reveals that they often go off half-cocked, seemingly preferring to do as much damage as possible, and rarely make the effort to find out if they have evidence supporting their actions. But what is even worse, is that after they have been found out, and their incompetence, laziness and pettiness has been revealed, they refuse to acknowledge their faults and to make reasonable efforts to set things as right as possible, preferring instead to stonewall and ignore or cover-up.

Since over a year has gone by since the firing, the false allegations and the false criminal charges, and they have done nothing to rehabilitate Mr. Fiola's reputation and compensate him for his pain, the only conclusion I can reach is that I have characterized them correctly. If only I believed in Hell, I would wish them a long slow burn when they reach their deserved destination.

Urban Reserves - A Foolish Idea

Urban Reserves - a Foolish Idea

Indians in and around Regina are celebrating the establishment of an urban reserve within the City of Regina. Proponents and collaborators from the non-Indian community are no doubt joining in the celebrations. Unfortunately, it is both counter-productive and foolish to expand a system that was created to contain and control Indians and which has so many harmful and negative aspects. However, such foolishness is to be expected from the social democratic and liberal mindset of so many Canadians and from the cowards and fools that they elect to political office.

The creation of Indian reserves was Canada's version of apartheid, like the so-called "homelands" in South Africa. Those same social democrats and liberals would bridle at being called supporters of apartheid, but of course, "apartheid" is what happened elsewhere, and Canadians couldn't possibly have such vile motives.

Today, reserves are still cesspools of violence and degradation, despite the billions of dollars poured into them. They are also the political bailiwicks of a coterie of bureaucrats [the chiefs and their cronies] who do not wish to lose their control and other privileges, mainly financial.

Reserves are also roadblocks in the way of integration and modernization, of education and the creation of self-reliance and self-respect.

To perpetuate this foolishness in the creation of urban reserves doesn't do the general Indian population any favors. One of the main reasons, mostly unstated, for the establishment of urban reserves is to allow Indians to establish urban businesses, and to receive income free from taxation. While such privileges may benefit a few, they will not achieve the objective of hauling Indians up by their bootstraps into the modern economic and social world. Doing away with reserves [with sensitivity and careful planning] would help accomplish such an objective.

Isn't it about time that Indians both lived in the real world and actually contributed to it, instead of constantly being a drain on it?

June 4th, 2008