The best part wasn’t necessarily at the dinner, but came earlier, when Lala and me gave him this painting my Mom did for his 80th – from all of the Kinsellas. I hope he finds a good spot for it on his wall!

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The issue isn’t whether Ford would be (a) stoned/drunk in public or (b) mocking minorities in public.  That stuff is a given. He’s done it before, he’ll do it again. (He’s done it at the same place, too.)

The issue is whether (c) the video is legit or not.  I personally find it fascinating that (a) and (b) are no longer really news, and (c) is what folks are debating.

Oh, and (d).  That being a question I have for the cops: do you guys ever plan to charge Mayor Crackhead with driving under the influence? Or does someone have to die first?

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Any guesses who it is?

 

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Mayor Crackhead regularly shows up to work after lunchtime, or (often) not at all.

Not exactly someone who cares about giving taxpayers value for their money, is he?

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As in, everything he touches turns to garbage.

This Toronto Star typist gets one big thing wrong, here: Ryan is no friend of Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath, or many NDP partisans. I’m a Liberal, and I know that much. (A round-up of the last exchange Sidney and I had, in that regard, is here.)

Ryan’s sole objective is to get labour to support the coming budget: that’s all he cares about.  Other, more sensible, labour leaders have a bigger concern – keeping the Ontario PC anti-labour policies from ever being implemented.

That may be achieved by supporting Kathleen Wynne.  Or, that may be achieved by supporting Andrea Horwath.  My hunch, as I’ve written previously, is they’ll take the latter route – not Sid Ryan’s.

 

 

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• Globe: “Completely honest, of course I’m seriously thinking about running for mayor, right? Everybody knows that,” she says, laughing during an interview at her downtown Toronto home Monday. “Our city deserves more than Rob Ford. I wouldn’t want him to be a model for my grandkids.”
• Star: “To Torontonians, Chow is many things, but on Parliament Hill she is known as a tireless worker, a mentor to a young caucus, but not an MP who draws the spotlight. She is one of the better liked of those who punch the clock at the Centre Block, endlessly approachable, personable and well respected, both within and without her party.”
• CBC: “It doesn’t matter where we came from or where we live – we all want a better future for our children, and that’s my core belief, whether I was a school trustee, a councillor, or a member of parliament … We don’t have to be so negative to each other. We can connect,” said Chow. “As to whether I’ll run [for mayor of Toronto] or not, when I make a decision I’ll let you know…I’m seriously considering it.”
• Maclean’s: “In order to explain how I managed Jack’s death and deal with grief, I have to go into where my faith came from. My faith came from my church and during the period in my life when it was really quite difficult. I came to Canada [from Hong Kong] when I was 13. My mom and dad were professionals. My mom, a former schoolteacher, became a hotel maid. My dad drove a taxi, delivered Chinese food. I needed to go into it in order to explain how I managed. Also, the value of hard work: saving every penny, because there were a lot of rainy days. Those very important values needed to be in the memoir.”

 

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When you go there, the first thing you notice about Israel is how strikingly different it is from Canada’s Jewish leadership, and Canada’s governing Conservatives.

Israel is, of course, quite beautiful. But Israel is also multicultural and diverse. It is progressive and modern. And it is far, far more secular than you’ve been led to think.

“Progressive and modern” – and “secular” – are not the sorts of things one associates with the worldview of Stephen Harper, or many within the huge entourage travelling with the Canadian Prime Minister this week to Israel. Nor would anyone ever associate many of them with multiculturalism or diversity (one man revealed to be with Harper by Sun Media has ties to Britain’s racist English Defence League).

They are monochrome, they are sectarian, and they resolutely conservative. (And Conservative.)

Israel, when you see it up-close, isn’t like that at all. But that doesn’t deter Harper or his retinue of lobbyists and hardliners: they favour an approach that has isolated Israel (and Canada) globally, and which has reduced Canada’s Jewish leadership to a Conservative Party echo chamber. To them, you’re either in favour of Israeli settlements – which are illegal, and which Harper has refused to denounce while in Israel – or you’re the enemy. There is no in-between, for them.

We Irish are familiar with the species. Conservative evangelical Christians, and Canada’s Jewish leadership, are engaged in what is called “trying to out-Irish the Irish.” They’re hardcore. They’re hardliners. And they could not be more unlike most Israelis, who seek peace – not war – with surrounding Arab nations. (Who Harper, last month, actually called “a region of darkness.”)

Jewish leaders in the United States are wholly unlike Canada’s. There, the Jewish vote skews Democratic. For decades, U.S. Jews have been at the forefront of the civil rights movement, the feminist movement, and efforts to maintain a dichotomy between church and state. Unlike recent Canadian Jewish leaders, they have shrewdly maintained cordial relationships with all sides of the political establishment. So that, whoever is in power, they will always have someone to call.

Not in Canada. Here, progressive Jewish leaders – like the Canadian Jewish Congress’ Bernie Farber, or B’nai Brith’s Karen Mock, or Parliamentary giants like Irwin Cotler – have been shunned and reviled for favouring moderation and accommodation. Here, those who have traditionally regarded themselves as Zionists – like, for example, this writer – have been driven out for the temerity to oppose Israel junkets being offered to Muslim-hating white supremacists.

What has all of this ideological cleansing gotten Canada, and those in Canada who support the Jewish state? Not much. It cost Canada a seat on the U.N. Security Council, and has greatly reduced our voice internationally. It has left Canada’s Jewish leaders aligned with cartoonish Christian zealots who want to convert Jews in the end-times. Most ominously, it has reduced the number of friends Israel has within the Liberal and New Democratic parties, both of whom periodically win power.

A fair question to ask in conclusion: if Harper and his massive entourage are so pro-Israel, why are they so unlike so many Israelis?

Simple: Stephen Harper, and those with him, actually aren’t pro-Israel. They are pro-Likud Party. They, like Likud, are conservative, bellicose, and insular.

Likud isn’t Israel. Israel – multicultural, diverse, progressive, modern and secular Israel – is much more than that. And the sooner Harper and his factionalists accept that, the better off Canada will be.

Israel, too.

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If (a) this is accurate and (b) it holds up, get ready for a lot of long-yerm instability and chaos, folks.

Leger isn’t Forum. Those guys are the real deal.

Not good.

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In fairness to him – and, for what’s worth, I kick the Hell out of the Conservative leader and Canada’s conservative Jewish leadership in tomorrow’s Sun  papers – I don’t think Harper actually said that.  Some media have headlined it that way, but I think his definition of “anti-Semitic” is quite a bit narrower.

Here’s the key section of his Knesset speech, as provided by the ever-helpful David Akin.  What do you think?

“No state is beyond legitimate questioning or criticism.

But our support does mean at least three things.

First, Canada finds it deplorable that some in the international community still question the legitimacy of the existence of the state of Israel.

Our view on Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state is absolute and non-negotiable.

Second, Canada believes that Israel should be able to exercise its full rights as a UN member-state and to enjoy the full measure of its sovereignty.

For this reason, Canada has spoken on numerous occasions in support of Israel’s engagement and equal treatment in multilateral fora.

And, in this regard, I should mention that we welcome Israel’s induction this month into the western, democratic group of states at the United Nations.

Third, we refuse to single out Israel for criticism on the international stage.

Now I understand, in the world of diplomacy, with one, solitary, Jewish state and scores of others, it is all too easy “to go along to get along” and single out Israel.

But such “going along to get along,” is not a “balanced” approach, nor a “sophisticated” one; it is, quite simply, weak and wrong.

Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, we live in a world where that kind of moral relativism runs rampant.

And in the garden of such moral relativism, the seeds of much more sinister notions can be easily planted.

And so we have witnessed, in recent years, the mutation of the old disease of anti-Semitism and the emergence of a new strain.

We all know about the old anti-Semitism.

It was crude and ignorant, and it led to the horrors of the death camps.

Of course, in many dark corners, it is still with us.

But, in much of the western world, the old hatred has been translated into more sophisticated language for use in polite society.

People who would never say they hate and blame the Jews for their own failings or the problems of the world, instead declare their hatred of Israel and blame the only Jewish state for the problems of the Middle East.

As once Jewish businesses were boycotted, some civil-society leaders today call for a boycott of Israel.

On some campuses, intellectualized arguments against Israeli policies thinly mask the underlying realities, such as the shunning of Israeli academics and the harassment of Jewish students.

Most disgracefully of all, some openly call Israel an apartheid state.

Think about that.

Think about the twisted logic and outright malice behind that: a state, based on freedom, democracy and the rule of law, that was founded so Jews can flourish, as Jews, and seek shelter from the shadow of the worst racist experiment in history, that is condemned, and that condemnation is masked in the language of anti-racism.

It is nothing short of sickening.

But this is the face of the new anti-Semitism.

It targets the Jewish people by targeting Israel and attempts to make  the old bigotry acceptable for a new generation.

Of course, criticism of Israeli government policy is not in and of itself necessarily anti-semitic.

But what else can we call criticism that selectively condemns only the Jewish state and effectively denies its right to defend itself while systematically ignoring – or excusing – the violence and oppression all around it?

What else can we call it when, Israel is routinely targeted at the United Nations, and when Israel remains the only country to be the subject of a permanent agenda item at the regular sessions of its human rights council?”

UPDATE: Akin zeroes in on the problem with the speech – it actually seems to suggest that any criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic.  Which is, clinically, insane.  Now – again – I can’t actually believe Harper meant to say that.  But if he did – and, remember, Akin and colleagues are all there, and I’m not – then he has done a huge disservice to Israel.  And he has thereby left himself looking like a lunatic. For instance:

Does that mean, inter alia, Nelson Mandela was an anti-Semite?

Does it mean most American Jews are, too?

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Sun News has reported the names of those who make up Harper’s huge entourage to Israel – and one of them, says the eagle-eyed BCL – appears to have unsettling links to British neo-Nazi street thugs.

Did CSIS flag this to anyone in PMO? Did the RCMP? If they did, and if EDL-enthusiasts were permitted to ride along anyway, it suggests the trip isn’t just for those who love Israel.

It’s for those who hate Muslims.

 

 

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