Monthly Archive: August 2006

A report from the New York Times that I think is so relevant to what we know is happening in Caledonia, and what we suspect could be happening there, that I've included the entire text for your conderation.

Half-built homes with windows masked with black bag. Mysterious flashes of light, then a large fire. Six Nations police being told to stay away by Mohawk Warriors.

And now for something completely different, a report on the proliferation of crystal meth on native reserves.

For those who use RSS readers to view this blog, I've created a separate RSS feed for comments. Hopefully you'll find it useful.

A bizarre story concerning last night's fire in Caledonia. It is alleged that it was set on purpose, by an angry native being told by another native that he had to move out.

You reap what you sow.

When FOX News reporter Steve Centanni, who is American, was kidnapped, his New Zealand-born colleague Olaf Wiig was snatched as well. Wigg said in an interview that he can't condemn his captors. This even after they told Wiig of their intention to kill Centanni for being an American.

A letter, descibed as "stern", has been sent to the Six Nations demanding a drawdown of the native presence at the site. It was signed by both provincial and federal ministers. Credibility is being put on the line.

The damage done by the occupation of the Douglas Creek Estates in Caledonia, especially by meddlers like the Mohawk Warriors and their militant followers, is going to take a long time to heal, assuming it ever does.

I hate to give the ending away, but the movie is over 30 years old, so you ought to know the ending. If not, don't read this post.

By email:

As of 7:40 Wed night - one home on the DCE [Douglas Creek Estates, the land occupied by natives from the Six Nations Reserve] land is currently on fire.

Natives are on the roof - cropping away to the roof.

More to come.

If true, this could be bad. A fire started by natives using open fires to stay warm? Worse yet, a fire set purposely by someone. In any case, all those exposed wooden frames, no fire retardant covering, containers containing vehicle fuel and cooking fuel...

And if emergency vehicles refuse to go on the occupied land...some people would call it poetic justice.

Stay tuned.

Weather conditions: The Weather Channel reports that the temperature in Caledonia is 16°C, with a low overnight of 13°C. Cool enough to fire up one of those wood or camping fuel burning stoves to fight off the chill.

More information at Wake Up Call:

8:50: I back on to DCE and yes there was in fact a fire. I have just heard that there was an explosion in one of the homes and 3 are wounded and 2 are down. I saw there were a ton of Oshweken firetrucks, and two ambulances.

Let's see what information gets out of the Estates. The protesters are just as likely to clam up.

Update: Sounds like silence is the rule. Reports that no police -- neither the OPP nor the reserve police -- were allowed to enter the disputed land to investigate. Just what were the Mohawk Warriors up to?

Last update for tonight, from Wake Up Call: 10:50 Confirmed through police source that 6 native were hurt - 4 taking away to hospital.

The natives are girding for a winter occupation in Caledonia. Premier Dalton McGuinty is not pleased, but then he's shown everyone that he can tolerate months of lawlessness, so why would this be any different? Still, leaving our ineffective premier aside, the winter has the potential of altering the balance in Caledonia.

Toronto Police have arrested a woman for credit fraud. She used her position of trust at an insurance company to obtain personal data on individuals, then apply for credit cards in their names.

The police announcement says the company is taking steps. The problem is that since the police have not named the company, how do I know whether my credit rating was put at risk?

A Iranian-Canadian dissident has been released by the Iranian government, physically unharmed. Though it is impossible to prove, it might be the new Conservative government's willingness to get into a scrap that convinced the Iranians that this man was not worth the potential trouble.

Naguib Mahfouz, the only Arab to win the Nobel Prize for literature, has passed away at 94.

The Bank of Montreal is helping out the protesters. It's not the bank's role to be involved, of course, and all the bank is doing is hosting a bank account.

It's just business.

Just like it's just business to decide where to do your banking.

Stephen Taylor has a leaked document listing all the foreign policy resolutions to be presented at the upcoming NDP policy convention in the fall. It is a document that is filled with all the requisite anti-Bush, anti-US, anti-business, anti-military stuff we expect from the NDP. Of course, these are resolutions coming from the grassroots, so you'd expect the worst of it to be filtered out just before or during the convention.

But I'm surprised at the harsh resolutions coming from the Trinity-Spadina riding association. That's Olivia Chow's riding. Olivia Chow is the wife of Jack Layton, the NDP leader. I would think that those resolutions would cleave closely to mainstream NDP thinking. If so, Canada's third party is entering a radical and thrill stage.

Egad! Forsooth! Ods bodkins!**

Robin Hood has been kidnapped!

** OK, I know, "Ods bodkins!" was an Elizabethan expletive, not Medieval.

The University of Waterloo is launching an audit of the on-campus Tamil student association in the wake of the arrest of four ex-students on terrorism charges. A former executive with the Tamil student association at the University of Toronto responds with several reasons why this is a bad idea, which makes me think it's a very good idea indeed. And not just for the University of Waterloo.

I thought I had put an end to the Gerard Kennedy picture nonsense. Apparently, like some movie villain, it staggers back, requiring me to hack at it again with logic and common sense.

This time, I've added Photoshop to my arsenal. Die, you stupid story, die!

He didn't do it. That was obvious on August 17.

John Mark Karr has been cleared of any involvement in the JonBenet Ramsey murder. He faces other child pornography charges, but with the media circus surrounding the Ramsey case, he'll never get a fair trial, and he'll probably walk free. Thanks to Boulder prosecutor Mary Lacy, he'll be walking to a school near you.

From the CBC:

Bloc Quebecois MP Benoît Sauvageau was killed Monday in a car accident in Repentigny, east of Montreal, according to police. He was 42.

Sauvageau, who represented the riding of Repentigny, was first elected to Parliament in October 1993.

He was married to Jacinthe Amireault, with whom he had four children.

I'm about his age. I've got the same number of kids. Damn. My condolences to his family, and to his colleagues in parliament.

No, we're not talking about the mole in the Liberal Party Election War Room. We're talking about a new feature at the Blogging Tories website.

Early experience from Beijing suggests that if you are one of those people who avoids the Olympics like the plague, fed up with the corruption and the waste and the focus on a handful of telegenic sports, nothing is going to change for you. In fact, you'll probably be able to add all sorts of new reasons to be watching anything else on TV for those two weeks in 2008.

Did the Conservatives try to suggest that Liberal Party leadership candidate Gerard Kennedy is a lush? Or is the suggestion a bit of a stretch?

A study is about to be published that seems to confirm what people knew to be true hundreds of years ago -- boys learn from men, and girls learn from women. Of course, only half of this study is acceptable. The half that suggests men might be better than women in some way is wrong. And the obvious conclusion -- that we need more male teachers -- well, we can't have that sort of thinking.

The two released FOX News journalists were forced to convert to Islam. Though they've been released unharmed, thankfully, I wonder what if they had refused to convert. If they were martyred, would we in the West mock them for their faith?

The literacy and numeracy rates for teachers in Australia is dropping. Anyone know where to find the same numbers for Canadian teachers?

It could be, that after looking into this further, there is no blame to be allocated to either the Conservatives or the Liberals when it comes to contacts with the PMOI. Both sides tried hard to do the right thing in the murky world of Middle Eastern politics, while trying to stay true to personal and Canadian values.

Some idle thoughts concerning interim Liberal leader Bill Graham, Liberal MPs Alan Tonks and Derek Lee, and the question of communications and the art of mudslinging.

Jason Kenney, Conservative MP, has been called a hypocrite for criticizing a Liberal MP who spoke in support of a terrorist organization this past week, but who himself appeared at a rally for yet another terrorist organization in April 2006. That group was listed as a terrorist group, under a different name, in May 2005.

Jason Kenney grabbed a megaphone and spoke some words of support for democracy. What of two Liberal MPs who just this past month wrote letters of support, explicitly naming this group, letters demanding that the Conservatives provide support? Support for a terrorist group? Demanded by Liberals?

Deja vu all over again.

Sounds like Jason Kenney was doing just what the Liberal Party wanted.

Sounds like chairs were thrown during the Liberal Party retreat in Vancouver, assuming my Euphemism-to-English Dictionary is right. Certainly there are plenty of reasons to think things got ugly.

I'm a man, so what do I know? But I know how to research. So when someone makes a factual statement on why women in this country need a government department to help them, I figure I should be able to find some data to support that assertion.

A chorus of calls to eliminate the Status of Women Canada as a government agency is getting noticed.

It sure seems like John Mark Karr was working very hard to get out of Thailand.

The Liberal leadership campaign has been almost entirely bereft of policy debate, at least as far as ordinary Canadians can tell. It took a damaging scandal to get the leadership candidates to take a stand. And even in this case, only two of them took a stand, while the rest didn't disagree. They just didn't say anything at all. Do any of them believe in much of anything?

The Liberal Party leadership campaign has taken a nasty turn, with someone using a confidential membership list to send out a mass emailing of comments critical of Michael Ignatieff, the presumed frontrunner. The email also points to a website that is chock full of anti-Ignatieff material. Back in June, I wrote about this website, and how it is run by a computer company that has on staff a convicted hacker who now breaks into systems to test their security.

I wonder how good the security is at Michael Ignatieff's leadership website.

Noted columnist Adam Radwanski has some strong opinions about the blogosphere, opinions he shared with the influential Public Affairs Association of Canada (PAAC). I have to say that in general, he's probably right, or at least not far wrong. How I run my blog involves a conscious effort to counter some of the trends he's seeing.

Canadian Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj has resigned as associate foreign affairs critic over comments in support of Hezbollah. But the Liberal Party is still in trouble. Wrzesnewskyj is just one member. One Liberal blogger knows that there are plenty more who think Wrzesnewskyj was right on the issue, and are plotting revenge.

Deb Frisch is facing criminal charges for her vile trolling activities. This is probably a first for the blogosphere.

New information has been released concerning Cindy Sheehan's condition. Unfortunately, it deals only with the treatment. We already know the symptom. We still don't know the cause. And as long as Cindy Sheehan's people are using her medical situation as a part of their political theatre, it's fair to ask about the exact nature of her condition.

John Mark Karr, who confessed to the murder of JonBenet Ramsey and so was whisked out of Thailand where he was facing sexual assault charges, is acting like a man about to recant his statements. Was this all a ploy to be rescued before being thrown into a hellish Thai prison?

One of Canada's most important online news sources, NealeNews, is going offline, permanently:

Today is the last posting for Nealenews. After spending five hours a day, seven days a week for the past four years updating this site, I have reached the point where I no longer have the energy or desire to continue.

In an attempt to prolong the inevitable, I recently decided to cut back on the postings, including weekends, but news operates on a 24-hour cycle and rather than become irrelevant through neglect, I've decided to pull the plug.

I would like to thank all of you for supporting this site so enthusiastically and for the many emails you have sent encouraging me along the way.

NealeNews is important to me because Brian Neale was responsible for giving Angry in the Great White North its first boost of blogging notoriety. My run-in with CBC Radio Morning Show host Andy Barrie became the banner story for a Sunday afternoon back in March of 2005. From there the blog was noticed by the guys at the National Post, and I started to connect with people throughout Canada in media and government and business.

Thanks, Brian. I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for you. Best of luck with the future!

At the Liberal Party retreat in Vancouver, touted as an opportunity to pull the party together, the in-fighting continues to escalate as two leadership hopefuls repeat their demand that Borys Wrzesnewskyj resign from his position as deputy foreign affairs critic.

One of the most one-sided and narrow-minded government agencies in Canada is the Status of Women Canada. It exists to funnel money to feminist groups, but only one flavour of feminism. Women's groups that promote more conservative feminine virtues are not "equality based" are don't get any money. Any women's group that does not subscribe to a "woman as the victim" view is likely to leave empty-handed if it were to ask for funding.

Who decides? Radical feminists, of course.

And when one of those conservative women's groups, REAL Women, began a campaign to have women write to MPs to challenge the funding of this agency, the radicals started a counter campaign. But while REAL Women had to pay out of pocket, the feminists used funds from the Status of Women budget to fund their effort.

That can't be right.

So if you are fed up with being forced to fund special interest groups, disbanding the Status of Women Canada is probably one of the best places to start. Check out Big Blue Wave, and follow the links to hear what other Canadian women bloggers are saying.

If you are a woman, and a blogger, share your thoughts and get a link.

If you are a man, and a blogger, help by driving some traffic over.

Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj, already in hot water over his remarks in support of direct talks with Hezbollah, is now suggesting that Canada step in offer gestures of goodwill to Lebanese-Canadians.

Unfortunately his gesture is likely to mostly help Hezbollah.

Stephen Taylor shames the CBC into a half-hearted apology for skewed reporting.

The impression in the news is that Liberal MP Boris Wrzesnewskyj went to Syria on his recent fact-finding mission, and then returned demanding that Canada remove Hezbollah from the terrorist list and begin negotiations that would somehow turn Hezbollah into a peaceful force in the Middle East.

Nothing happened to Wrzesnewskyj on the trip to change his mind on anything. The fact is that he has been hoping to meet with Hezbollah for some time now.

That is, of course, illegal under Canadian law.

So the question is, did he get his wish?

Conservative MP Jason Kenney responds to an appeal from opposition MPs to start dealing with Hezbollah, beginning with taking Hezbollah off the terrorist list. The government position? We don't deal with Nazis.

Yet another high profile member of Canada's Liberal Party is having trouble finessing the subtle issues in the Middle East. This time the communications director for Liberal leadership candidate Martha Hall Findlay is on record as equating Israel with Hezbollah.

This time Tamils are involved. Nine have been arrested in the United States attempting to buy anti-aircraft missiles. Four have been identified as Canadians. One of them might be a senior figure in the Canadian Tamil Congress, an organization that stridently denies that Tamil terror groups are operating in Canada. The CTC denies any knowledge of the arrested Canadian.

Thomas Hubert, an executive member of the Young Liberals of Canada (British Columbia), posted a remarkably vicious comment on a blog, decrying the undue influence of "violent Zionists" in the Liberal Party. He has resigned. But that is just the beginning.

It looks like the gloves have been dropped and the real fight is about to begin.

An executive member of the Young Liberals of Canada (British Columbia) is apologizing for a venomous comment left on a blog arguing for a purge of Zionists who live off the blood of the innocent from the Liberal Party. Unfortunately for the Liberal Party, this is not an isolated incident -- though it might be the closest an official of the party has come to using the blood libel.

The Supreme Islamic Courts Council is going to dress its militia members up in proper uniforms, suggesting that the Council is confident that it will become the legitimate government in Somalia. It is also stepping up efforts to impose the strictest form of Sharia law on the populace in areas under its control.

The youth wing of Canada's Liberal Party, the chief opposition party in Ottawa, is holding a contest. Seven specific Conservative MPs are being targeted. The goal is to take the best (read "embarrassing") picture of one of these MPs. The winner gets an iPod.

The winner might also be awarded a prison term of up to 5 years in prison for criminal stalking if thse fools aren't careful.

There are four parties represented in the Canadian Parliament: the ruling Conservatives and then the Liberals, the NDP, and the Bloc Quebecois forming the opposition. The opposition parties are all left-of-centre, all opposed to the policies of George W Bush (to varying degrees of virulence), and all reflexively critical of Israel.

It is no surprise then, when a Canadian Arab organization with strong links to Syria arranged a trip to Lebanon to view what the organization called Israel's disproportionate response to Hezbollah's missile attacks (without any mention of those missile attacks, of course), these three opposition parties sent MPs.

The governing Conservatives, who have come down solidly on the side of Israel, pulled out at the last minute.

What does surprise me, though, is just how eagerly and just how eager these opposition MPs are to be a part of this Syrian propaganda exercise.

John Mark Karr has been deported from Thailand, not extradited to the United States. The result might be the same in terms of his airline ticket, but the subtle difference between the two processes might shed some light on what is going on behind the scenes.

An official once close to the JonBenet Ramsey investigation is putting forward a theory (offered on this blog three days ago) concerning the confession of John Mark Karr -- that John Mark Karr is not offering a fake confession as the action of a sick and twisted mind, but as part of a cleverly planned deception motivated by rational self-interest.

The Anglican Church is again trying to deal with the schism that is tearing it apart, especially within the United States. A solution is being proposed, but it will never work, because we know from experience it will never be accepted by liberals. So what will happen? American conservative Episcopalians will continue to flock to Africa and South America.

According to an email being sent around, Ontario's Liberal government under Dalton McGuinty cannot appeal Justice David Marshall's order to suspend the negotiations with the natives occupying disputed land in Caledonia. That's because, if I understand this correctly, Justice Marshall worded his ruling as advice as opposed to a point of law. And this might have implications for the future.

The Taj Mahal is an enduring symbol of Islam in predominantly Hindu India.

Why would al-Qaeda threaten to blow it up?

According to one of Cindy Sheehan's colleagues at Gold Star Families for Peace, Cindy Sheehan went to hospital to undergo a transfusion to treat blood loss amounting to an astounding five pints! Gynecologically speaking, there are not too many ways to lose that much blood, especially since Cindy Sheehan has not undergone any surgery recently.

A major embarrassment at Public Works has Minister Michael Fortier demanding answers of this deputy minister, David Marshall. I'm amused, because I've been hoping someone would start asking Marshall some harsh questions since last summer.

A gathering of Native elders in Port Alberni, British Columbia, has emptied the coffers of the host tribe, forcing them to lay off most of the band council staff and suspend essential services.

Is John Mark Karr's confession to the murder of JonBenet Ramsey just a carefully prepared means of escaping Thai justice?

Seems like only a week ago -- oh, it was exactly a week ago in fact -- that Deb Frisch posted a fake suicide note on my blog.

You can read the whole story.

Now it's Thursday again, and Deb Frisch is at it again, now signing my name at Vodkapundit.

In a post about photography, someone left me the following comment:

oh my god - did you hear that pajamas media blogger dan drezner killed himself this morning?

That's a lie, and a vicious one at that. It might not surprise you that commenter "steve" has the exact same IP address as Deb Frisch. The email address she's using is "janke@email.com," but I assume it's a fake.

What the hell is wrong with someone that they would lie about a suicice? In Deb's case, it seems like a lot of things.

I'm not sure how to respond. It's so obvious now that it almost has the quality of an ongoing prank, like the guys who steal your garden gnome, then drive it around the country sending you pictures of where the gnome has been. You don't want your gnome stolen, but then when it happens, you just shrug.

At least the gnome gag is funny.

Deb Frisch has the persistance and determination to be pull off a sustained gag. She doesn't have anything remotely approaching a sense of humour though.

I guess I'll be waiting until she posts to yet another blog reporting that I've been found nibbled to death by fire ants.

It is notable, however, that this is the first posting in which I have used my name as a Technorati tag.

[Thanks to John for the heads up]

Buzz Hargrove, personally evicted from the NDP for supporting the Liberals in the last federal election, has led the Canadian Auto Workers Union out of the NDP as well. Without the autoworkers, what is left on the left for the NDP?

The leader of the separatist Bloc Quebecois, Gilles Duceppe, is insisting to the English-speaking press in Canada that he told the organizers of the August 6th Montreal rally that he would tolerate pro-Hezbollah demonstrations. But when the crowed loudly booed the speaker ahead of him who called for Hezbollah's disarmament as step to reaching a lasting peace for the region, Duceppe decided tolerance was the better part of principle and played to the crowed anyway.

Andre Pratt is upset. The Editorial Pages Editor at La Presse takes issue with Barbara Kay's piece for the National Post, "The rise of Quebecistan". In it, Kay makes the argument that Quebec is a place where anti-Semites and those who support terrorism (or at least are sympathetic with their goals) can feel welcome and at home.

Andre Pratte may not like what Barbara Kay is saying, but the facts seem to support her position.

Canadian soldiers shot for desertion in World War I might be getting posthumous pardons. Is this appropriate? Are the memories of those soldiers who fought and died in battle cheapened by this act?

From Macleans:

CAW leader condemns Harper government for AIDS, Afghanistan, Asian trade

And that's just the A's! Imagine Buzz Hargrove 30 minutes into his speech:

"..and the lumber deal. Which brings us to the M's: the military, marriage for gays, Peter MacKay,..."

Only twenty-six characters in the alphabet, thank goodness.

Judging of the Holocaust cartoons is underway. Here are some pictures of the judges hard at work.

In reaction to the Danish cartoon controversy, an Iranian newspaper promised to put on a contest where cartoonists would compete for a prize honouring the best cartoon mocking the Holocaust.

Who knew such a contest would be so popular? They've got entries from all over Europe and North America.

The Globe and Mail provides ample reason to follow Justice David Marshall's orders and suspend negotiations with the Native protesters in the Caledonia land dispute.

There is no one for the government to negotiate with.

I'm of Polish extraction, so I am ashamed to say that I forgot that today is the feast day of Father Maximilian Kolbe. Father Kolbe is also a patron saint of journalists, which might come as a surprise to Catholic bloggers.

Did Cindy Sheehan grossly overpay for the land in Crawford, Texas? The answer really depends on whether the money spent has helped reach the desired goal. The answer right now seems to be that it has not.

A guilt-ridden Catholic accuses the Church of hypocrisy in how a Catholic hospital handles a needle exchange program. I don't think the accusation stands up to scrutiny.

We now know about Cindy Sheehan's cordial relationship with paleo-libertarian Lew Rockwell. What about the cordial relationship she predicted she would have with her new neighbours?

The Six Nations Reserve has been protesting to get control of land near Caledonia. Now they are demanding control of the wind too.

Recently I've started linking my stories with digg. It seemed like a fair way to spread my stories farther. The Deb Frisch story was the first to break through the "popular" wall, and the experience was interesting.

From the Associated Press:

Paris Hilton bitten by pet kinkajou, has tetanus shot

Paris had the shot, not the kinkajou, in case you were wondering. It's a toss up, though, when figuring which of the two was more likely to catch something nasty.

I have never banned anyone from Angry in the Great White North. I take pride in that. I have had comments that were dead right, dead wrong, and some that were so long that I couldn't be bothered to read them to find out one way or the other. Some people are unfailingly polite, and some amusingly coarse, and some just plain nasty.

But until this comment by Deb Frisch, I have never had one that was calculatingly deceptive and designed to cause hurt to someone else.

So do I ban her IP address? I'm not sure. Post your vote. Know that this blog isn't a democracy, and that I'll take the final decision myself.

Readers of this blog might have noticed what read like a suicide note appearing as a comment to one of my posts. It appeared to be from a member of the US armed forces, a Navy SEAL named Matthew Heidt. In the note, this person claims to have behaved dishonourably in battle against the blog Protein Wisdom. He had dishonoured the memories of his fallen comrades in this "battle", and felt he had to die. Matthew Heidt is also a conservative blogger at Froggy Ruminations and Black Five.

Don't worry. No one is going to get hurt. I've been Frisched.

Update #1: The background on the Deb Frisch's vendetta against Heidt.

Update #2: I've been spotted!

Update #3: Deb Frisch comments on the sockpuppetting allegation...well, sort of.

Update #4: Deb Frisch thanks me.

THE RIGHT SIDE
August 8, 2006
www.therightside.ca

Here is your wake up call Ontario:

• Caledonia could come to YOUR neighbourhood. Don't believe the McGuilty line. All is not quiet in Caledonia. The province is set to drop a ton of YOUR TAX DOLLARS in what could be called a GAMBLE. Gary McHale of www.caledoniawakeupcall.com spills the news of McGuilty's slap-in-the-mouth to CH-TV.
• A new police chief for Ottawa. Mayoralty Candidate Terry Kilrea says MERIT before BILINGUALISM. The lefties say this is the ugly face of COMMON SENSE. Community activist Geoffrey Sharpe says we need a COP, not a POLITICIAN leading the force...and why is the mainstream media playing politically correct games when it comes to the identities of gang members.
• Lawrence Wise worked with statistical information all his life. It has given him a unique perspective on how our recent social history has unfolded. It's working out just like that (* &#*@@+! --) Trudeau hoped it would.

It's a Hot August on THE RIGHT SIDE.

Cindy Sheehan's divorce had less to do with her political crusade last summer, and more to do with her long-running affair with Lew Rockwell, libertarian thinker and fascist detector extraordinaire.

My very first post on the situation in Caledonia was a philosophical piece on the monopoly of violence. Things have come full circle.

In following the story of the murder of Yasmin Ashareh, I find myself tracking events in Somalia. With the focus on Lebanon, important events in Africa are going unnoticed.

The Toronto man charged with the murder of Yasmin Ashareh, William Imona-Russel, was picked up only after several days of police surveillance.

Yasmin Ashareh was 20-years-old, living alone in a rooming house in the west end of Toronto. Her mother and siblings live in another area of the Greater Toronto Area. The identity of her father has not been confirmed, but I have learned from multiple sources that he might be Awad Ahmed Ashareh, a powerful political figure in Somalia (the Minister for Religious Affairs in Puntland, no less), with ties to a fundamentalist Islamic group, the Supreme Islamic Courts Council (formerly known as the Islamic Courts Union) vying for power in that war-torn country from their power base in Mogadishu.

None of this appears in the media, other than a mention in the Globe and Mail that Yasmin's father was a political dissident who returned to Somalia about six years ago to help rebuild the country.

But I have been giving thought to the question of why the police would have placed Imona-Russel under surveillance, and suggested that a plausible explanation was that the police were observing Imona-Russel because they were hoping he would lead them to another person. Someone the police had reason to believe was linked to the murder.

Idle musings, I thought. Until this morning.

I always thought that stealing from the native peoples was a sin committed by rapacious corporate interests. Enlightened members of the left, with their anti-globalization mind set, know better than to take what is not theirs.

Shows you what I know.

The Palestinian flag flies with the the flag of Mohawk Warriors in Caledonia.

A gesture of solidarity between peoples who see themselves as oppressed?

Or a chance to peek behind the curtain at a dark secret?

A group fighting for their identity as a people is upset that they've been labeled terrorists.

Palestinians? Chechens? Tamils?

No. I'm talking about the Natives in Caledonia. Sad, really.

But what's really sad is that they've earned the label of terrorist. How? By terrorizing people, of course.

The occupation of the Douglas Creek Estates has been going on for months -- since February, in fact. In the first days of the trouble, Justice David Marshall ordered the protesters removed.

They're still there. Meanwhile the provincial government has been negotiating to end the stand-off, while refusing to enforce the judge's orders.

Today, Justice David Marshall has weighed in. Now he is ordering the negotiations to end until his orders are executed and the protesters removed. Will the province listen? If the province refuses again and continues to negotiate, can an argument be made that the federal government has a constitutional obligation to get involved?

Just how solid is the case against William Imona-Russel? He is the man charged with the murder of 20-year-old Yasmin Ashareh. She had been stabbed in the throat multiple times. Her body was hidden in a duffel bag and left for garbage pickup. The regular pickup was missed, and when the sanitation crew came around to pick up the garbage on their next scheduled day, the body was discovered.

If you have been following this story with me, you know that Yasmin Ashareh might be linked to powerful people in Somalia, including a conservative Muslim faction engaged in a power struggle with the current government with the goal of turning Somalia into an Islamic state.

But turning my attention back to Toronto, I have to say that there are elements of the story of Imona-Russel's arrest that have been bothering me ever since I first read them. I'm still bothered by them, and I thought I'd share my concerns and hear your opinions.

One of the basic rules in human conflict is to shield children from the fighting. I'm not just talking about "women and children first". I mean trying to keep them out of the politics and away from the propoganda. Why? Because conflicts inevitably end, and the hope is always for a lasting peace, or at least a stable co-existance. If children are taught an early age to demean and ridicule the enemy, then how will they "unlearn" those lessons? How can they understand that the "bad" people can become "good" people, though nothing much seems to have changed. They still look the same and talk the same and live in the same place. The subtleties of realpolitick will be lost on them.

You might think I'm talking about the children caught up in the violence in the Middle East, a place where one day Israelis and Palestinians will have to figure out how to live together.

I'm not. I'm talking about events here at home, in Caledonia.

I applied for an account to pay to view all of Reuter's photo packages. I was rejected. Something about only dealing with businesses, not individuals. I think I was blackballed.

Faked photographs and death threats aimed at critics. Reuters is revealing an agenda that should have every major news organization going after the news service with all the journalistic and legal tools at their disposal. Even CBS wasn't this bad.

I wonder if by posting this I could be brought up charges of distributing child pornography.

A Reuters photograph of Beirut burning might have been faked.

FOX News is kicking CNN's sorry butt all over the rating charts. So why am I stuck watching CNN here in Canada?

Part of the story of the Peter Whitmore case involves a deal struck by an RCMP negotiator, in which the Mountie promised that prosecutors would not pursue dangerous offender status or a life sentence.

Given the pattern of repeated sex offences over the years, it is obvious most Canadians would want Whitmore thrown in jail never to be free again. As it is, it is likely he'll be out in a handful of years.

Unless the prosecutors break the deal. But unfortunately, they can't do that.

I continue to explore the links proceeding from murder victim Yasmin Ashareh and her family. I would expect to hit a brick wall, but instead the links are taking me in more frightening directions.

Update: Added details concerning the most recent fighting in Somalia, involving the alleged allies of Yasmin's purported father.

Gwen Boniface's handling of the Caledonia land dispute has made front page news in Ireland.

The BBC "Terrorism Awards" parody is garnering a lot of negative publicity. I was shocked by what I saw, but then humour is supposed to shock you. The surprise of the punchline is intrinsic in humour. But I didn't find this funny.

Why?

It took me a while to answer that question I posed to myself. But now I know why. This "parody" doesn't even qualify as humour.

For this heinous act of terrorism, pictured above, Osama bin Laden is among the three finalists for the "Terrorism Awards" featured on the BBC.

You see, it's a joke. Get it? Planes crashing into major buildings? The obliteration of landmarks of Western civilization?

What? You're not laughing?

Well, you're not alone.

[Related: Why I don't think this parody is funny.]

The investigation of the murder of Yasmin Ashareh continues. A man, William Imona-Russel, has been arrested. My original theory that Yasmin might have been the victim of an honour killing seems to have been discredited.

Fair enough.

Still, with Yasmin's family connections, it doesn't sound so far-fetched.

Joe Friesen of the Globe and Mail has revealed more about Yasmin Ashareh, her family, and her alleged killer.

I have to admit that the new information leaves me more confused, not less.

Is the secret plan developed by Dalton McGuinty's Liberal government to resolve the Caledonia land dispute now out in the open? What does it say about the true motives of the people occupying the land? What does it say about Dalton McGuinty, the police, and how future issues like this one are likely to be handled? Are we in for more of the same? You decide.

In my postings about Ken Hill, the Six Nations businessman charged with assault in connection to violence at the Caledonia land dispute, I have suggested that Hill's actions might have been motivated by his interest in gambling. Indeed, gambling interests might have been playing a major, if uncredited, role in the whole land dispute from the very start.

Now I have found evidence that Ken Hill was actively pursuing construction of a bricks-and-mortar casino a mere five years ago, and that the technique of reclaiming "long-lost native land" was part of that strategy. At the time, he pursued the claim legally, and was thwarted by both non-native officials and his own band leadership. Maybe this time he is trying do pull the same trick, just with a few subtle changes to the plan.