Kike.

Don’t like that? Too bad.

Nigger. Faggot. Paki. Chink.

Don’t like those, either? Again, too bad.

As of last week, Stephen Harper’s Conservative government made it a lot easier for you to be called any of those things — or any number of other racist, hateful epithets — when they killed a key part of the Canadian Human Rights Act. That part, Section 13, prohibited the communication of hate via the telephone or the Internet.

The section came into being in the ’70s because some neo-Nazi groups were using hate lines to communicate some pretty awful stuff.

More than a decade later, the Supreme Court told a litigious white supremacist the section was constitutional and a reasonable limit on his free speech rights. A decade after that, with the haters spending a lot more time on the Internet than on telephones, Parliament decided to expand the section to cover online attacks.

Then, just this week, a nobody Conservative MP was successful in getting Section 13 killed, making use of the Harper regime’s favoured sleight-of-hand, a private member’s bill. Section 13 was dead.

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Here.

It’s wonderfully written (what is “brine” in this context, anyway?) by the Liberal Party’s leading gold-plated, jet-setting Tweeter.  He’s a total pain in the ass, he behaved very badly during the Grits’ Vikileaks self-immolation, but I very much like how he writes.

His lack of enthusiasm for Rae needs to be seen through the prism of who he is: former Iggy staffer, somewhat embittered, who remained in the bunker with the future/former Harvard professor to the grim end, etc. etc.  But worth a read, nonetheless.

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TORONTO – “So I was turning off Avenue onto Cumberland to park, and a guy stepped right out in front of my car!

It was Bob Rae, alone. Swear to God.”

Mr. Kinsella wishes to stress that he braked. We repeat, he braked.

That is all.

– 30 –

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“Ottawa insists the IMF exists to help the world’s developing countries, not Europe, and Canada takes the position that it is standing up for non-G20 countries that are uncomfortable with IMF funds going to the euro zone.”

If this is truly his motivation, he’s right. The Third World before should come before serially incompetent First World governments.

Now, I need a drink.

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So, he’s broken his promise about not running, and they’ve broken their own rules about him running.

Business as usual, in other words.

And they wonder why they’re in the second year of being stuck in third place. Wonder no more, etc.

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A family member with a very big and very steady source of income, and a property with tons of equity in it, is getting majorly jerked around by a major chartered bank. The only rational explanation for their behaviour is rank sexism – she’s a single mother.

Calling all smart bankers: if you want a big book of business, and lots of Warren goodwill, contact me directly or in comments.

Oh, and my readers will be watching, too. Most of them use banks.

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Is Rob Ford useless? Does he everything he touches turn bad?

(By the way, unless a store returns to recyclable paper bags, I won’t be shopping there. I don’t carry containers around with me, as a general rule, and this is going to be a pain in the ass for lots of people.)

Thanks, Rob Ford. You are totally, completely useless.

UPDATE: Rob Ford says it’s your fault. Quote: “It’s the people’s fault.”

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Why is it a mistake? Why is it a disgrace?

1. The Cons had no election mandate to do what they did.

2. In fact, until they got a majority, they’d always defended the section.

3. It now means our only tool to fight online hate is the Criminal Code. Criminalizing all hateful speech is going way too far.

4. It means we are the one of the only Western democracies without a cheap, non-criminal means to combat online hate.

5. It leaves minorities without any meaningful recourse when facing hate. Will they take the law in their own hands?

They might, and it’d be hard to blame them. Canada has declared you are now free to say whatever hateful thing you want about someone’s race, ethnicity, orientation, disability or religion online.

Welcome to Stephen Harper’s Canada. It’s ugly and about to get uglier.

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Taken a few minutes ago in Toronto by a pal.

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They’ve been there for a couple nights, too, at Nike’s Yorkville store. Anyone know why?

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