In today’s Sun: they deserve to be beaten, but they won’t be

Living north of the Queensway, as they all do, some members of the Ottawa commentariat are telling us that the burgeoning Robocon scandal isn’t going to harm the Conservative regime.

They’re wrong, for the reasons they cite.

They’re right, for the reasons they don’t.

Let us explain: This week, the Toronto Star’s much-respected Chantal Hebert cited — with no apparent enthusiasm — two public opinion polls, by Ekos and Nanos, and declared the Conservative government’s support “rock solid.”


March 10: your morning Robocon

You know, when I worked in government, whenever there was a protest or occupation of one of our offices or something like that, I would always tell staff the same thing: “Bring them coffee and doughnuts. Let them use the washroom. Talk to them. Be nice to them. They’ll eventually give up and leave.”

Something tells me that treating Stephen Maher like a leper isn’t a great media-management strategy.

Sort of suggests they have lots to hide, don’t it?


March 10: your morning Robocon

You know, when I worked in government, whenever there was a protest or occupation of one of our offices or something like that, I would always tell staff the same thing: “Bring them coffee and doughnuts. Let them use the washroom. Talk to them. Be nice to them. They’ll eventually give up and leave.”

Something tells me that treating Stephen Maher like a leper isn’t a great media-management strategy.

Sort of suggests they have lots to hide, don’t it?


March 9: your daily Robocon

Their strategy: abuse the trust of senior citizens. What a bunch of scumbags:

OTTAWA—Automated phone calls that directed people to the wrong polling stations in the last federal election overwhelmingly targeted older voters, the Toronto Star has learned.

Elections Canada investigators sifting through a flood of complaints that have emerged about dirty tricks in the spring 2011 campaign have started to notice this pattern as they call back Canadians to verify details of the suspicious phone calls they have reported receiving.

Most of those who received an automated phone call telling them their polling station had been changed say they were previously contacted by the Conservative Party and indicated that they would not be supporting their local Tory candidate.

Now federal elections officials say that the fraudulent phone calls targeted older voters.

“Every single person I’ve contacted has been (born) between 1947 and 1949,” said one unidentified Elections Canada employee who was following up on the complaints Friday morning.


Her Majesty and the gay-hating, women-hating, equality-hating REAL Women of Canada

Quote:

I wrote about them nearly two decades ago, in Web of Hate.  Here are some of the things you should know about them:

  • One of their directors was Rita Ann Hartmann, who led the Ottawa-based Northern Foundation.  Hartmann’s husband Paul was a Ku Klux Klan and Western Guard leader; two of their sons were active in the neo-Nazi Heritage Front in the Ottawa area.
  • Hartmann maintained connections with neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups across North America, such as the Confederate Hammerskins, while simultaneously acting as a legal advisor to REAL Women of Canada.  At one early REAL Women conference in Ottawa, Hartmann gave an anti-abortion speech.
  • Later on, Wolgang Droege, the founder and leader of the Heritage Front, told me:  “The Northern Foundation was the start of it all for the Heritage Front.  From that point on, things really took off.”

At no point am I aware of REAL Women of Canada having denounced Hartmann or her involvement with neo-Nazi causes. Following the 1994 publication of Web of Hate, instead, REAL Women of Canada continued to promote bigotry and division, albeit less aggressively than their director Hartmann.

In the intervening years, then, REAL Women has consistently shown themselves to be anti-gay, anti-choice and anti-equality.  There is plenty of evidence, for those who have the stomach for it.  (Those who wish to provide cited examples in comments are encouraged to do so.)

I want to get a letter-writing campaign going, today – fittingly, on International Women’s Day – to Her Majesty and Rideau Hall about this outrage.

You can write to Her Majesty here, with the style and structure you should adopt.

You can write to Rideau Hall here.

This is important, on this day of all days.  Please do this.