In April, ethnically Sikh BC politician, Ujjal Dosanjh, said that Sikh extremism is on the rise in some parts of Canada, and blamed it on “politically correct” Canadians who let it happen. It sounded incredible to hear the words at the time, but then again his comments were tempered by the fact that he was beaten badly in 1985 by Sikh extremists after speaking out against violence done in the name of religion.

25 years later, Ujjal Dosanjh says that extremism is much worse, despite the fact that the worst terrorist attack in Canadian history occurred when Air India flight 182 was blown up in 1985 by Sikh terrorists, killing 329 passengers.

The reason that we can’t have an honest conversation about extremism — and this is according to a Liberal MP and immigrant — is that Canada’s “polite brand” of multiculturalism gives extremists the opportunity to drag their old grudges and prejudices from the homeland to Canada.

“I think what we are doing to this country is that this idea of multiculturalism has been completely distorted, turned on its head to essentially claim that anything anyone believes – no matter how ridiculous and outrageous it might be – is okay and acceptable in the name of diversity.

“Where we have gone wrong in this pursuit of multiculturalism is that there is no adherence to core values, the core Canadian values, which [are]: That you don’t threaten people who differ with you; you don’t go attack them personally; you don’t terrorize the populace.”

Fast forward to today’s op-ed in the National Post. Mr.Dosanjh writes about the honour killing of Aqsa Parvez by her father, and the increasing importation of such values to western nations:

In 2000, the United Nations estimated that 5,000 women and girls are murdered every year in honour killings, a term that masks the brutality of the crime it describes. In some cases, women are even killed because they have been raped. While such murders are particularly prevalent in the countries of the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East and parts of Africa, as we are seeing, they also happen in the Western world.

[..]

There is a huge misconception that these crimes occur because of certain religious beliefs. There is no religion that condones the murder of women. It’s the feudal/patriarchal culture of male dominance and control that’s the culprit. For example, in the Indian sub-continent, and in the Indian diaspora, such killings happen among people of many different faiths. The irrationality surrounding the notion of “family honour” provides cover for brutality and inhumanity.

Mr.Dosanjh goes further, saying that in countries like Canada, Great Britain, and the United States, fear of offending minorities prevents society as a whole from examining the immorality of the mentality that leads to honour killings.

I suppose the only contradiction in all of this is that we have hate speech laws that limit free speech to the extent that people are genuinely afraid of being accused of disseminating hatred on the basis of “race or religion”. Don’t think it’s possible? The Human Rights Commissions are filled with such cases.

If Ujjal Dosanjh were more consistent, he’d move to throw out section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Code, so that we can get down to the honest business of criticizing the extremism that the Liberal MP says we’re too afraid to speak about.

ALSO SEE

Let’s not forget what consequences can transpire for those people who do try and have that honest conversation.

Suspected pirates wait to be moved at the port in Mombassa, Kenya (AP Photo)

Last week Liberal MP for Vancouver South, Ujjal Dosanjh, said that “distorted” multiculturalism is responsible for the rise in Sikh extremism in Surrey. The politician was threatened by radical Sikhs that they could not “guarantee” his safety if he chose to attend a cultural parade:

“I think what we are doing to this country is that this idea of multiculturalism has been completely distorted, turned on its head to essentially claim that anything anyone believes – no matter how ridiculous and outrageous it might be – is okay and acceptable in the name of diversity.

“Where we have gone wrong in this pursuit of multiculturalism is that there is no adherence to core values, the core Canadian values, which [are]: That you don’t threaten people who differ with you; you don’t go attack them personally; you don’t terrorize the populace.”

We saw last summer in the demonstrations by the Tamil people in Ottawa and Toronto, that immigrant enclaves can harbour people with extremist views, who support organizations that are responsible for violence and terrorism. Cracking down on the supply chain of terror funding was partially attributable to the success in eradicating the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.

But there is more work to do in Canada:

Some Somali-Canadians have received a cut of the ransoms collected by pirates operating off the Horn of Africa and money may have been sent back to Somalia to fund other hijackings, according to an intelligence specialist on piracy.

Karsten von Hoesslin, a senior analyst for Risk Intelligence, told naval officers from Pacific Ocean nations gathered in Victoria for a three-day maritime security conference, that the transfer of ransom money has been tracked from Somalia to Ottawa and a number of other locations that are home to Somali communities.

This should be properly identified and prosecuted as supporting terrorism, and dealt with under federal anti-terror laws in an appropriate fashion.

Ujjal Dosanjh. Photo: John Lehmann/Globe and Mail

You know, back when 331 people were killed in a terrorist bombing orchestrated by Canadian Sikhs? This isn’t just “distorted multiculturalism”. These are the inevitable, predictable, foreseeable consequences that we, the perpetually proscribed “racists” of Canada, have been trying to tell you for decades.

The below clip is an abridged interview between Charles Adler and lifetime Liberal Dan Donovan, who says that many Liberals are appalled by the socialists who have hijacked the Liberal party, and gone against their traditional commitments to the NATO alliance. He says that most Liberals are upset with the haphazard way that the troops have been smeared by talk of war crimes, but that it’s mainly because the political party has been influenced by former NDP members like Ujjal Dosanjh and Bob Rae.

As Don Donovan writes today in Ottawa Life Magazine:

Mr. Rae and Mr. Dosanjh prostitute themselves for media ratings, offering scarce objectivity and an absence of balance. They postulate that if Canadian soldiers handed over even one prisoner who was then mistreated (or tortured) by Afghan authorities, both the Prime Minister and Defence Minister must be war criminals. There could not be any other explanation. Their conjecture is nothing but absurd. We know factually that there were cases when the Canadian Forces took detainees back into their custody upon learning the Afghans were mistreating them. But don’t let that get in the way of a good round of media froth.

Just last year, Bob Rae and Ujjal Dosanjh, both former NDP Premiers who are now posing as Liberals (and who are the key spokespersons for the Liberal Party posts of Foreign Affairs and Defence), were demanding that then Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier resign because he told reporters during a scrum in Afghanistan that Asadullah Khalid, the governor of Kandahar province, should be replaced. They argued that by making this statement about Khalid, Bernier was interfering in Afghanistan’s domestic issues. Again, the national media were all over this story reporting that Bernier was interfering. They insinuated his resignation was imminent. Now, Rae and Dosanjh are saying that Peter MacKay should resign because he did not interfere enough in Afghanistan’s governance. It is a classic example of sucking and blowing at the same time.

Time Length: 5 minutes, 38 seconds. File size: 5 MB

Charles Adler and Dan Donovan

To listen to the whole interview, go to the Adler radio vault, select March 22, at around 12:35. Particularly interesting is the discussion of Richard Colvin near the latter part of the 18 minute interview [50 minute mark].

via a loyal reader

Afghan National Army soldiers. Photo credit: Master Corporal Robert Bottrill, Canadian Forces

The opposition attacked the federal Conservative government over Afghan detainees in Question Period again today, with the NDP picking up on the word “rendition” that had been used by federal MP for Vancouver South, Ujjal Dosanjh, the day before. The increasingly exaggerated language is based almost solely on the recent hornets nest stirred up by University of Ottawa Professor Amir Attaran, who inexplicably claims he has seen unredacted documents that show that Canadian intelligence officers ordered high-value targets to be tortured in Afghan prisons.

Following that CBC article was an rather vague report by the Canadian Press that CSIS has been used in some unknown, undeclared capacity in Afghanistan. But that doesn’t preclude the report from speculating about a number of things, such as the idea that CSIS has been playing a “crucial role” as interrogators of a “vast swath” of captured Taliban fighters. There’s no evidence to suggest this is true.

Picking up on these two unsubstantiated pieces of hearsay journalism, Ujjal Dosanjh spoke in the House of Commons on Monday:

“Mr. Speaker, the CBC and the Canadian Press have both reported that the government ordered the transfer of detainees to the notorious Afghan NDS for the purposes of extracting additional information.

We are not questioning the actions of our troops, as the Prime Minister continues to say, we are questioning the actions of the government.

Did the government conduct a deliberate policy of rendition, the outsourcing of interrogation and torture of Afghan detainees for extracting additional information?”

Well, transferring detainees to the NDS is hardly as surprising as Mr.Dosanjh makes it sounds. The Afghan NDS, whether the Liberal member thinks it is notorious being largely irrelevant, frequently rode along with Canadian Forces and joint task force operations, taking control of detainees on site. In fact, Afghan Police and NDS took custody of suspected Taliban fighters with no questions asked by Canadian Forces, and often without any documentation of the so-called transfer.

After the Prime Minister gave an answer that more or less insinuated the previous Liberal transfer policy was to blame for whatever problems the Liberals are looking for, Mr.Dosanjh asked again:

“Mr. Speaker, did the government conduct the policy of rendition? Each week media are reporting more troubling information. None of this information so far has helped the government’s claims.

Allegations as serious as rendition require more than just a vetting of the documents. They require a full and transparent public inquiry to look at all the facts.

Will the government do the right thing and call a public inquiry?”

The “information” referred to by Mr.Dosanjh is unsubstantiated and uncorroborated speculation in newspapers based upon claims made by a single University Professor and the extrapolation of torture from several unrelated events. But further to the point here, how exactly does one “rendition” an Afghan from his own country into the custody of his own police force? That word doesn’t quite make any sense in this context. When the police in Canada pull a gang member in for questioning, there isn’t any question that he’s been “renditioned”.

The main problem with the current theory being flogged by the Liberals and NDP right now, which is that CSIS has been acquiring “high-value targets” [based on words taken out of context by Richard Colvin] with the assistance of JTF-2 special forces [also unconfirmed], has been “outsourcing” interrogation to the Afghan intelligence services for the purposes of gleaning intel for NATO, is that there’s no logical explanation for it.

For one thing, the vast majority of detainees went directly to Afghan police, and hence NDS interrogation, anyway. For another, there was never any “vast swaths” of captured detainees to begin with. This concept that Canadian Forces captures dozens of Taliban fighters a day is something largely fabricated by an imaginative mind. Then there was the 72-hour rule for ISAF, which meant that all NATO players, like Canada, were required to turn over Afghan detainees to the proper authorities within 72 hours, or let them go.

The final red flag is the idea that CSIS would be working with the NDS in any capacity that would personally benefit Canada’s intelligence agency. There’s no reason for the Afghan intelligence agency to interrogate anyone for the benefit of Canada, nor that CSIS would get any information extracted from a detainee back from NDS.

Given the recent inventions of torture, rendition, and secret spies, you have to wonder what the opposition is going to come up with tomorrow. It kind of makes you want to tune in to Question Period and find out, doesn’t it?

Photo Credit: Mathieu Belanger, Reuters

The Parliamentary ways-and-means motion on the harmonizing tax in British Columbia and Ontario which had previously been referred to as the “Harper Sales Tax” by Mr.Ignatieff, passed easily today, evoking memories of Stephane Dion and the days of Liberal hand-sitting. It wasn’t even close enough to give a false sense of hope, with the yeas prevailing 192-32. The Liberals completely and utterly capitulated, with those who bothered to show up throwing their support behind the Conservative government and ending the federal controversy on the tax.

All that’s left now is to assess just how further weakened Michael Ignatieff’s leadership is after having yet another sand castle get kicked into his face by Stephen Harper’s big blue machine. Time after time the Liberal leader has created a blockade, only to have to tear it down again after realizing it wasn’t going to work. The embarrassing “on probation” comment and the economic updates are gone, not even mentioned by the Liberals anymore. The panel on Employment Insurance was staggeringly useless and ultimately undermined by the Conservative government’s own extension of E.I. benefits. At this stage in the game it’s almost got to the point where you want to shout at the Liberal leader: “Stay down, Mikey, for the love of God, stay down!”

But, often to predictable disaster, Mr.Ignatieff won’t stay down for the count. His party continues to undergo rebuilding on the fly, which is almost like watching the Toronto Maple Leafs try to sign and dress fans during the hockey game. It’s painful to see Toronto aide after Toronto aide leave Ottawa, and head back to the big smoke utterly defeated. It’s got to be even more painful being an insider of this train wreck of a political party. Not only is this an organization that changes policy based on the time of day, it changes members just as frequently. At this point I’m surprised the HMS Tory doesn’t pull up on the side and offer to throw life jackets to the survivors.

Of course very few of the Liberals will come to their senses long enough to realize it’s time to pack their bags and head back to the drawing board. Smug arrogance in the face of utter defeat seems to be a prerequisite for a Liberal Member of Parliament. Well, at least for those in the caucus.

It wouldn’t be fair to condemn every Liberal. There are very clear and visible cracks in the walls, although perhaps the metaphor of a wall would be a little generous. BC MP Ujjal Dosanjh was one of four Liberals who were opposed to the HST, which is extremely unpopular in regional polls. Mr.Dosanjh had just sent out flyers in his riding condemning the HST when his boss decided to back the Tories.

And let’s be frank here. Michael Ignatieff didn’t have a choice on the matter. The vote was going to pass anyway with the assent of the Bloc Quebecois, who only want Quebec to get their “harmonization” money just like B.C. and Ontario. The Liberals voting for, against, or not at all, did not matter in the end.

But the optics of Mr.Ignatieff’s flip-flop could not be worse. If you don’t like what the Liberal leader is saying today, just wait until tomorrow. It sounds like a Conservative attack ad. It isn’t.

The HST has been a divisive, controversial, polarizing issue that has created the strangest alliances and just as strange enemies. Both the provincial Liberal governments of B.C. and Ontario support the HST with the federal Conservatives, while the federal Liberals did not. Just as bizarre, both provincial Conservative parties reject the HST, going against their federal cousins. This had created some friction between Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Michael Ignatieff, since the Liberal leader had given confusing, contradictory, and non-committal answers about whether he supported the HST or not.

In the end, his thunder was stolen anyway. Just as the NDP saved the Conservatives from a vote of non-confidence in September when the Liberals were trying to force an election at the same time their poll numbers were plummeting off a cliff, this time the Liberals saw the writing on the wall and tried to save their skins. It’s too late for that. The opposition leader has proven himself ineffectual, indecisive, and ultimately a liability. The only question is whether it’s going to take a drubbing in the next election before he, like Stephane Dion before him, understands that.