Covering up (updated)

If you don’t care about this, you’re with the terrorists.

Now that the lunatics are running the asylum, with majority control, get used to more of this:

The government is placing a ban on face coverings such as niqabs for people swearing their oath of citizenship, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Monday.

The ban takes effect immediately.

As a result, Muslim women will have to remove their niqabs or any other face-covering garments, such as burkas, before they can recite the oath of citizenship to become Canadians. Citizenship judges will be directed to enforce the rules at ceremonies over which they preside.

As I wrote some months ago, you should also get ready for every kook and bigot with some spare time on his hands commence litigation against the Sikh’s turban and beard, the Jew’s kippah and the Hasidic Jew’s clothing,  the Hindu’s tilak facial markings, the styles favoured by traditional Mennonites and the Amish, or perhaps even the ostentatious display of a nun’s habit.

Oh, and there’s this campaign, which started in Israel last Fall:

(Related story found here).

And here’s a Canadian angle:

Quebec’s Orthodox Jewish community appeared for the first time on Wednesday before a National Assembly committee, taking up an unexpected cause – fighting a bill that would ban the wearing of the Muslim niqabwhen receiving government services.

The Jewish Orthodox Council for Community Relations said by placing gender rights above religious rights, the bill would create a hierarchy of individual rights and freedoms that would be challenged before the courts. The group warned the government against adopting “hard and fast rules” that could exacerbate social tensions surrounding religious minorities.

And so on and so on.

In 2011 A.D., it amazes me that we still need to say this, but apparently we do:  Religions should have no control over what governments do – and, as in this case, governments should have no control over what religions do.  If no one is being harmed in some way, social conservative nutbars like Jason Kenney should back off.

And will the NDP say anything about this?  Not on your life.  Liberals?  We shall see.

UPDATE: From a sharp-eyed reader, this gem. We all expect Kenney to place Eve under citizen’s arrest, now.


The Law Society of Upper Canada is a joke (updated)

As I write this, I am (again) on hold.  I – and many other Ontario lawyers – have been trying to meet our Continuing Professional Development requirements for the year.  There’s no one to talk to, they don’t return messages, there aren’t enough sessions, and those sessions that exist are full.

Good thing these people don’t run the judicial system or anything.

Oh, wait.

UPDATE: Spoke to an actual person, she said she would immediately connect me with someone else.  I’m back on hold, and have been for 20 minutes.  These idiots should work for Rogers.

UPDATER: Been on hold for close to an hour, now.  Have started to do a film about this, for later broadcast (I’m not kidding).  Emails sent to every available LSUC address have gone unanswered.

 

 


In today’s Sun: Flyboy Pete crashes and burns

Almost exactly a year ago, I was at Pearson Airport, awaiting the appearance of a family member. The arrival doors slid open, and out walked Conservative cabinet member Peter MacKay with an unidentified companion. Smiling, laughing, they headed off to points unknown.

In retrospect, I should have taken a picture of that historic moment, so that Sun News could show the world that Peter MacKay has, indeed, flown commercial with the rest of us plebians, at least once.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, the sighting of MacKay at Pearson ranks up there with the repatriation of the Constitution, and the placement of the Last Spike.

It was that momentous. It should have been one of those Heritage Minutes that were on TV all the time, years ago.

Now, MacKay has taken to waving libel writs at anyone who has the temerity to suggest that he has grown overly fond of traveling on the public’s dime, so let’s be cautious. And, let me emphasize, I am not saying that the minister of defence is a reckless, pompous, out-of-touch wastrel and squanderer, one who makes drunken sailors look like models of fiscal restraint and probity. I did not say that, Your Honour.

 


Stand by me

Thirty-one years ago today. Makes me feel old and sad. His music hadn’t been very good, at the end, but I still miss him.


Fourteen reasons

…we need gun safety laws in this country:

  • Geneviève Bergeron (born 1968), civil engineering student
  • Hélène Colgan (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
  • Nathalie Croteau (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
  • Barbara Daigneault (born 1967), mechanical engineering student
  • Anne-Marie Edward (born 1968), chemical engineering student
  • Maud Haviernick (born 1960), materials engineering student
  • Maryse Laganière (born 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique’s finance department
  • Maryse Leclair (born 1966), materials engineering student
  • Anne-Marie Lemay (born 1967), mechanical engineering student
  • Sonia Pelletier (born 1961), mechanical engineering student
  • Michèle Richard (born 1968), materials engineering student
  • Annie St-Arneault (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
  • Annie Turcotte (born 1969), materials engineering student
  • Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (born 1958), nursing student