Categories for Feature

So, our motion to dismiss the lawsuit launched against us by Maxime Bernier – seen above, in handcuffs and in police custody a few days ago – is being heard in court on Friday. I’m sure it is a complete and total and absolute coincidence, but someone has given two-year-old documents about the case to Bill Curry at the Globe and Mail. Bill has taken the bait, apparently.

So Bill has an invoice, and what looks like a proposal that was never acted upon. He also had some questions for me. Here are the answers I gave him, to ensure total accuracy and transparency:

“1. The document you have is not signed by me. It is not a contract.

2. The document you have does not in any way describe what we did. We researched racism and published our research on social media.

3. We don’t discuss client relationships when the client insists on confidentiality. But we are proud to oppose racism and bigotry, and will never apologize for doing so. The client, here, deserves credit for opposing racism and bigotry as well.

4. All of this was covered extensively by you and other media two years ago. All of it. There is nothing new here, in my opinion.”

In a separate email, I also told him this:

“The client was a lawyer, and that is who the invoice is addressed to. Who he gets to pay his bills, and from which address, is determined by him, not us.

When they paid is also up to them, as long as it is done within a reasonable time frame. But we always insist we get paid for good work, and we frankly did very good work here.

Again, all of this was investigated and verified by the Elections Commissioner two years ago. I strongly urge the Globe to speak to them before publishing a story based on two-year-old documents that bear no relation whatsoever to the work that was actually done.”

I’ve urged Bill to contact the Elections Commissioner, because they investigated Bernier’s complaint about us and quickly dismissed it. They can verify everything I’ve told Bill. I don’t know if he plans to do that, so I’m sharing all of this with you guys.

Slow news day, I guess.

Comments (2)

Comments (1)

Right off the top, let’s all agree not to use his name. The alleged killer of the Muslim family in London, that is. With some crimes, that’s what the criminals so often want: to be named, to be remembered.  So let’s deny the killer that. But, as we try and find a motive for a crime as senseless, as evil, as this one, let’s also agree on this: there can be more than one motive. There can be more than one reason. The killer wanted notoriety, to be sure.  But what else could possibly be his motive, for a crime this horrifying, this cruel? We don’t know for certain yet. Bits and pieces are coming out, as they always do, in newspapers and on social media. Shocked neighbours are interviewed. Disbelieving former teachers, too. Family members are typically sought out for comment, but they often don’t know what to say. Understandably. But whatever we learn about the killer, and the killer’s motive, one thing is certain: he belongs to a certain demographic.  It’s one this writer has been paying attention to for three decades, because their ranks have been growing. Going back to my book Web of Hate in 1994, I started to notice a certain type of criminal thug committing a certain type of crime. And their ideology didn’t matter so much as their psychology. They’re not terrorists, often. Despite what Justin Trudeau claims, they’re not motivated by some political or ideological purpose. They’re just criminal thugs, and they hate other people. Often: • they’re male • they’re young (teens to early thirties) • they’re unsuccessful (at love or life) • they’re unemployed (often after post-secondary study) • they’re angry (at everything and everyone) • they’re alienated from family (who often have lost contact) • they’re involved in petty crime From skinheads to incels, these young men become incandescent balls of rage. They are looking for a replacement family, a new beliefs system, a sense of belonging, a higher calling, a culture that rejects the popular culture, a new religion, maybe even a uniform to wear. And along come manipulative older men, practiced in deception, who give them all those things. The old men give the young men a manifesto of hate. Now, desperate young men do desperate things, as we are now seeing – in London, Ont., in Quebec City, on Parliament Hill, on Yonge Street in Toronto. But these crimes are happening much more frequently, it seems, and with much more ferocity. Why? Well, social media doesn’t help.  It’s a cauldron of hate, too often, where hatreds flourish like dark weeds. Video games and popular culture, too: they nurture the notion that violence is a legitimate way of expressing oneself. But all of these young men share certain characteristics.  Despite the differing races and politics, they share motive. Why? Because they feel rejected by the mainstream. Because they feel they do not belong. Because they are shunned. So they leave civil society, and embrace a decidedly uncivil one. These young men turn to anti-democratic action precisely when they feel democracy has turned on them. Using violence to achieve political change is terrorism. But, Trudeau’s claims notwithstanding, the terrible events in London simply may not be terrorism. They truly seem what they they most often are: an angry, directionless young man, suffused with hate, who tries to destroy what he fears. Which, in this case, were some strangers who had what he did not – family, faith, love and a belief in humanity. [Kinsella is the author of several books on organized racism, anti-Semitism and extremism.]

Comments (5)

From the Picton Gazette:

“The ‘Holding Court’ statue of Sir John A Macdonald was removed from Picton’s Main Street Tuesday morning and will be placed in storage while municipal staff determine next steps for the sculpture’s location.

…During the four-and-a-half hour special council meeting Monday, 38 people provided comments on the issue, with only three speaking in favour of keeping the statue in its current space.

The municipality’s procedural bylaw that allows no more than 30 minutes of public comment was waived at the onset of the virtual meeting Monday night to allow for all pre-registered residents to speak.

The special meeting was held in light of last week’s discovery of the mass unmarked grave of 215 children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. Its intent was to discuss public safety and contractual obligations for the sculpture…

…Noted national political strategist and PEC resident Warren Kinsella told council his daughter is Indigenous and they reside in the home where Sir John A collected his mail when he was a young lawyer in Picton.

He said debates like this have been raging for quite some time and will continue.

“Opponents say correctly, in my view, that such monuments are painful reminders of violence and genocide and they argue that we should not ever celebrate hatred and I agree with that,” he said.

“Such monuments rewrite history, hide the truth, and celebrate a fictional, sanitized past and ignore the misery that men like this created. We now know that Sir John A Macdonald did create misery and he is not a man who we should be celebrating in this community or in this country. If you disagree, I would ask you to put yourself in the shoes of my daughter.”

He said statues of men like Sir John A Macdonald, as lifeless as they are, still hurt the living.

Coun. Andreas Bolik questioned whether council should rename the town of Picton as it is named after Sir Thomas Picton, who kept slaves. 

Kinsella said [people have enough] critical faculties to work on these kinds of changes and that though he was unaware of that fact, it should be done.

“It is an ongoing effort. It is not nearly enough to say, ‘We can’t do anything about it because there’s too much of it.’ We need as a people, collectively, to deal with this issue because it is an issue that is not only important to Indigenous people like my daughter, it is important to all.”

Comments (6)

Comments (2)

Slacktivism.

They define that as “the practice of supporting a political or social cause by means such as social media or online petitions, characterized as involving very little effort or commitment.”

Slacktivism happens a lot, in the social media age. People tweet a tweet, or post a link on Facebook, or sign a petition.

Or they offer up thoughts and prayers. Or they fly a flag at half-mast. Or they put some kids’ shoes on their front step.

They do those things, and then they think they’ve done something meaningful. They think they’ve done enough.

And sometimes (perhaps) it is enough. Or (at least) it’s better than nothing. Depends on the subject matter.

But when the subject matter is hundreds of dead babies and children, dumped behind a building like they were trash, I’m sorry: A well-meaning tweet or a “215” graphic on Facebook simply isn’t going to cut it. It’s not enough.

Not even close.

Now, I know what you’re going to say: ‘I’m just a regular citizen. I’m just Joe or Jane Frontporch. I have no power like the politicians, or the media do. What can I do?’

Well, for starters, you shouldn’t do what the politicians are now doing, which is nothing. Which is the same damn thing they always do: Thoughts and prayers, sturm und drang.

Press releases no one reads, promises of more Royal Commissions that accomplish nothing, bilingual tweets no one remembers. (In either official language.)

That’s slacktivism. That’s giving the illusion of doing something that is really nothing. I detest that, personally. I’ll bet you do, too.

I also detest it when people try to fit their narratives into a larger narrative. But hear me out: I actually come to this story with legitimate connections.

One, my daughter. She’s Indigenous. We adopted her when she was one day old. She changed my life.

Two, Sir John A. Macdonald. He changed Indigenous lives, too.

He was the monster who came up with the residential school system — the system where it became acceptable to drop babies in unmarked graves. After they had been stolen from their parents, and abused, and destroyed.

And, in some cases, killed. Obviously killed. (Why else hide their deaths from the world?)

“Sir” John A. Macdonald was a young lawyer in Prince Edward County, where I live. I literally live in the area’s old general store and post office, and Macdonald used to come here to get his mail.

And he called people like my daughter “savages,” many times. He called for more “Aryan culture” in Canada. And he acted on those words.

So, what can we do, so long after the fact, you ask? Fair question.

Just this week, the Americans are dealing with a similar act of evil: One hundred years ago this month, a white mob attacked the predominantly black district of Greenwood, in Tulsa, Okla. The mob killed at least 300 African American men, women and children, and they burned 35 square blocks to the ground.

And they did all that, as with Canada’s residential schools, with official sanction. Some had even been made deputies.

So, what are the Americans doing about that, so long after that fact? Plenty.

There’s a massive lawsuit, for starters, against every level of government. It demands a detailed accounting of what was lost and stolen. It calls for the building of a hospital. It calls for an ongoing fund to compensate victims — survivors and descendants. It calls for a tax break for victims until restitution is paid.

That’s not a tweet or a Facebook meme: That’s real, meaningful, concrete action. It’s something that you don’t need to be powerful to do — it in fact is specifically designed to empower the powerless.

So I ask you: Someone wants to take your babies and children away from you, never to be seen again. To steal their language, and their culture, and their lives. What would you do?

You’d do a hell of a lot more than some slacktivism. I know that — you know that.

So, let’s do more.

— Warren Kinsella has been a Ministerial Special Representative on Indigenous matters in every region of Canada

Comments (18)

Read this story. Sign our petition. We need your help.

Guzar and some of his neighbours approached Warren Kinsella, a former journalist, Toronto lawyer and former Liberal Party strategist who founded the anti-hate group Standing Against Misogyny and Prejudice (STAMP).

Kinsella and his consulting firm The Daisy Group, who agreed to work pro-bono for the cause, said the petition is an effort to move public opinion on the name change, not only in Puslinch, but for the northern Ontario town Swastika as well.

“People power works,” he said in a phone interview with CambridgeToday. “We’re trying to harness that.”

In addition to support at the federal level, Kinsella said they’re working with senator Linda Frum, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and lobbying with representatives at Queen’s Park to add momentum to the cause.

He said he believes the township has a number of tools at its disposal to change the name of the road, most of which aren’t going to “cost them a nickel.”

Expropriation would be a last resort, but even then Kinsella said he’s amazed it’s taken as long as it has to do what’s right.

“It’s the literal symbol of Naziism,” Kinsella said. “It’s literally the symbol of murder.”

“To me this is a no-brainer. It’s not ‘woke’ culture, it’s just being awake and being sentient.”

The issue has become of particular concern in recent weeks with the rise of anti-semitism around the world, triggered by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said.

“It’s still there. The beast is still awake.”

At its May 26 council meeting, Puslinch councillors went in-camera to hear information provided by the township’s solicitor on Swastika Trail.

Guzar and Kinsella said they don’t know why the township consulted its lawyer about the road.

Comments (4)

Comments (0)

Comments (0)

Comments (5)