My latest: godless

— 04.15.2025 11:59 AM

What would Jesus do?

Well, if He ran Elections Canada, He probably wouldn’t do what Elections Canada is doing this year. Which is conduct advance polls on some of the holiest days of the year, for Christians and Jews alike.

For Christians, the holiest days of the year are Good Friday (when Christ was crucified and died) and Easter Sunday (when He rose from the dead). For Jews, the Sabbath is always holy, and the Ten Commandments require that it be a day of rest – while Passover is holy, too (and commemorates the exodus of Jews from Egypt).

Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Passover and the Sabbath: for Christians and Jews, those days are among the most holy, most hallowed days in the calendar year. And, as noted, the Ten Commandments – observed by Christians and Jews alike – decrees that the observant must always remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy. Per Exodus 20:8: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work.”

That’s a quote from God, which is a pretty authoritative source. But Stéphane Perrault, who has been Canada’s Chief Electoral Officer since 2018, is perhaps unfamiliar with the Ten Commandments. He, with the power bestowed on him by Parliament, decided to hold advance polls on April 18, 19, 20 and 21. Literally, Passover, the Sabbath, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Holy Week.

It’s not like Perrault had no choice. His own web site says the following: “The Canada Elections Act currently grants the Chief Electoral Officer the discretion to recommend to the government an alternate day for the general election if the CEO is of the opinion that the date is not suitable, including by reason of its being in conflict with a day of cultural or religious significance.”

There can’t be many days less “suitable” for advance polls than Passover, the Sabbath, Good Friday and Easter Sunday, can there? Election day is important, advance polls less so. Perrault was deciding when advance polls should take place – and he chose days that, for most observant Christians and Jews, are a violation of their faith.

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My latest: Warren’s war room rules

— 04.14.2025 10:46 AM

The first rule of fight club: don’t talk about fight club.

The second rule of fight club: don’t talk about fight club.

The third rule: if you break the first or second rule, Warren will fire your ass, and you will never work in politics again.

Yours Truly ran many war rooms for Jean Chretien and Dalton McGuinty between 1992 and 2011. We did okay in those campaigns.

On day one of every campaign, when all of my fresh-faced war room charges were still well-rested and still committed to regular bathing, I would relate the three above rules. It was a ritual, always observed.

It wasn’t because I was a fan of David Fincher’s 1999 cult film – although I did like his cinematic social satire quite a bit. I recited the three rules because they could spell the difference between the campaign’s victory or defeat.

My war roomers weren’t allowed to tell spouses or significant others about what they did on the campaign. They weren’t allowed to say anything on social media. In particular, if a member of the news media approached them with a microphone – and that happened a few times – they were to be as silent as a POW.

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My latest: Jew-haters, Jews and the law

— 04.13.2025 03:08 PM

The blood-red paint was splashed all over the doors and windows of the bookstore. They had put up lots of pictures of the owner of the bookstore, too, atop words accusing her of supporting mass murder.

The owner of the bookstore, Heather Reisman, is a Jew.

That it was antisemitic – Jew hatred – was obvious to anyone walking by the Indigo bookstore on Bay Street. There’s other bookstores within walking distance, but they weren’t touched. The one owned by the Jew was.

The crime happened in November 2023, while Israel was still locating, and still burying, some of the bodies of the 1,200 Jews and non-Jews slaughtered by Hamas a few weeks earlier. The posters glued to the doors and windows at Indigo accused the Jewish owner of mass murder – when Jews themselves had been the victims of mass murder October 7. There is something deeply evil about that kind of inversion.

But that is what the so-called “Indigo 11” did. They went out, with deliberation and forethought, and falsely accused a Jew of acting like the Nazis did.

The police eventually caught up to the antisemites and charged them. Quite a few were proud of what they had done. Initially, the Toronto Police Service acknowledged the obvious, and called the crime “hate motivated.”

And then, somewhere along the way, it all became downgraded to just a bit of mischief. That’s what they called it: “mischief.” No one was charged with a hate crime, even though it had all been deeply hateful. And this week, the last remaining defendants got off with “conditional” sentences.

Why? Good question. The law is pretty clear on the subject.
Under the Criminal Code, anyone who commits “mischief” – as at that bookstore in November 2023 – can be guilty of an indictable offence under the Criminal Code. They can be imprisoned for up to ten years for that.
When applying that law in years past, Canadian courts have taken antisemitic graffiti and vandalism much, much more seriously. Judges have handed out tougher sentences when the wrongdoers have targeted a specific racial or religious groups. Because it is clearly, indisputably hateful.

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Your summer vacation awaits!

— 04.11.2025 11:08 AM

Don’t go to America! Stay home! My Eastern Ontario place is available this summer for weekly bookings, on 15 acres on a very quiet lake! Sleeps 8, trails, drive-up access! DM me for details.


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