Disgraceful: Brigette DePape’s Grandstanding and the Reality in Canada

For those who haven’t seen anything on Brigette Marcelle, who’s real name is Brigette DePape, here are the CBC and CTV inerviews.

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I also recommend you read these video’s comments. They say a lot about Brigette and those who share her warped political views. Here’s a few which I found extremely troubling.

SmilingWood – Power to this gal!

My fellow canadians are so apathietic and brain dead these days that they can’t be bothered to do anything about our lame assed government that’s filled with criminals, globalists and zionists. The people must wake up now and fight back. Or this girl’s generation will be living in a bankrupt country filled with private prisons that think of humans as a commodity for profit.

keep up the great effort, Brigette.

jehovahhasheard – Evan Solomon is a JEW

alg3r1a – how can you expect a civil disobedience from people who elected Harper … you have to face reality : canadians voted for Harper , they want to be slaves

420goossens – REVOLUTION IN CANADA! PLease we need to stop ths crook. HE had a surplus now were in a deficit. And while he didn’t raise taxes he will help bring about the North American Union. Man I hope my fellow Canadians can kick this guy out on his ass!!

To be fair, the vast majority of the comments are simply congratulations for Brigette’s protest, but then you find those like the one’s I posted above and you get an idea of those who share her political views. Much of what I’ve read on various blogs, including the fringe left Sister Sage’s Musings, reflects this kind of paranoid, conspiracy theory obsessed mindset. For example, one commenter, Eve, commented that Evan Solomon was an agent for the Conservative government. Does she believe this because, as jehovahhasheard thought it necessary to point out, Solomon is Jewish? Considering how anti-semitic these people usually are, it wouldn’t surprise me.

What else I find troubling about Brigette and her supporters is this idea of bringing the “Arab Spring” to Canada. As Matt Gurney of the National Post pointed out, those who want this do appear are so opposed to Harper’s Conservative government that anything else, including chaos and anarchy, would be preferable. What’s so perverse about all this is that you have these fringe left blogs like Orwell’s Bastard and Driving The Porcelain Bus pushing for “extra-parliamentary opposition” because the electoral system failed to bring about the result they wanted. They would have us believe that overthrowing a democratically elected government is the only course of action that a patriotic Canadian can take since the result of the recent Canadian election is somehow illegitimate. Here’s where we find irrelevant, if not dangerously misguided, moral grandstanding.

As we saw in CBC and CTV interviews, Brigette rationalized her pro-revolution position by pointing to supposedly low voter turnout. This is also the same argument made by Driving The Porcelain Bus, that the government is somehow illegitimate because not enough people voted and “drastic measures” must be taken to “put pressure on the Conservative government to not follow through with their plan of destruction.” Is this the same position these people have held since the 2000 Canadian federal election? Former Prime Minister Jean Chretien received slightly more of the popular vote than Stephan Harper did the last election (40.85% versus 39.62%), but with a lower voter turnout (61.2% versus 61.4%). In fact, considering that the last few elections, except for 2006 (64.7% voter turnout), have been relatively low, why haven’t these people spoken out about the supposed illegitimacy of previous governments? Without consistency to back up these claims, anyone pushing this irrelevant point is doing so to find some justification as to why the election turned out the way it did. What’s dangerous about this is that it provides a reason, not a good reason, but a reason nonetheless, to justify any course of action taken against this government. As silly as Brigette’s stunt was, considering that her warped political views weren’t a secret, how is it that she was cleared by a background check to work as a Senate page, let alone able to smuggle her protest sign into Senate chamber? Brigette might not be violent, but many of those who share her political views are.

Here we find this misguided belief that somehow these fringe radicals represent the majority of Canadians. Returning to the election results, despite the Conservative’s 39.62% of the popular vote, the NDP, the political party who’s platform most closely mirrors Brigette’s political views, received only 30.63% of the popular vote. Even adding the Green Party’s 3.91%, the party which shares Brigette’s radical views on the environment, you only get 33.91%, which is still much lower than the support given to the Conservatives. What about the Liberal Party and its 18.9% of the popular vote, doesn’t their votes count? Not really. While the Liberals have some political positions in common with the NDP and Greens, they are traditionally more like the Conservatives, especially on issues concerning the economy and support for the military. Instead of splitting the votes or even adding them to the Conservative total, I would prefer to leave them out of the equation for argument’s sake. The fact is that, despite claims that Stephan Harper and the Conservatives are some far-right fringe group that doesn’t represent a majority of Canadians, they did win a majority government because more Canadians support their political positions than those of the NDP. In fact, considering that the NDP won Quebec, along with 58 of their 103 seats because of a pro-separatist platform in the province, one has to wonder if Quebecers themselves even support their positions on the economy, the environment and the military.

The reality is that Canada isn’t a fringe left country. If the last election proved anything, it is that a majority of Canadians reject these political positions pushed by Brigette DePape. We saw a fundamental realignment of the political landscape, and the Liberal Party, once considered “Canada’s natural governing party,” has been pushed aside by a more conservative party that now appears to be Canada’s political powerhouse. It’s this fact that terrifies Brigette and her supporters. The unsustainable course charted by Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Elliot Trudeau for Canada is now being replaced by a Prime Minister who values financial stability over an ever expanding welfare state. There will be no more talk about radical environmentalist policies, nor will Canada abandon its military commitments to appease those who prefer a hand-off approach to the Middle East as the “Arab Spring” continues to bring about more death and destruction to the region.

All Brigette’s protest has done is demonstrate how detached her and her supporters are, not only from the Canadian public, but from reality. Pathetic…

UPDATE: I didn’t go into detail to discuss Brigette DePape’s lack of understanding of the “Arab Spring,” but the National Post’s Jesse Kline has a column up which I recommend my modest readership give a look.

UPDATE: Found this on the University of Ottawa’s website thanks to one of Brigette DePape’s supporters.

Brigette DePape, 2007 Loran scholar
Originally from Winnipeg, Brigette is a first-year international development and globalization student. Brigette has performed and written plays for the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, was a member of her high school basketball team and president of its social justice committee. At uOttawa she is balancing studies in arts and theatre. Her mentor is Sharon Carstairs, Senator representing the Province of Manitoba.

President of the social justice committee? For those who don’t know, social justice is defined as “the distribution of advantages and disadvantages within a society.” Simply put, it’s coded language for wealth redistribution. Why didn’t anyone pick this up during a background check? If not that, how about her bizarre play, She Rules with Iron Sticks: An Exploration into the Curious World of Baton Twirling?

Seriously, did anyone even do a background check on this girl? Urgh…

An Islamic Reformation? Lorne Gunter on the Qur’an Burning

I have to say I am perplexed by all this nonsense I have been reading and hearing for those who would blame Paster Terry Jones for the deaths of U.N. staffers and guards in Mazar-i-Sharif. Instead of placing the blame solely on those responsible, those like Lindsey Graham believe freedom of speech should be restricted because of what Islamic radicals might do. The problem with this idea is that it assumes that such provocative actions, like Qur’an burnings, are reasons for this violence. They aren’t. They are just excuses to fan the flames of Western hatred.

While Ed Morrissey’s post is probably one of, if not the best piece I have read on this story, I do want my modest readership to give Lorne Gunter’s column on this a look.

…What Terry Jones is not – for all his sins – is a murderer. That designation belongs to the Muslim extremists who, in retaliation for his Koran-burning stunt – have rioted for three days in Afghanistan and killed a total of 24 people so far, including seven international staff of the UN in Mazar-i-Sharif in the northern part of the country.

Jones may have conceived that a deadly reaction would occur in the Muslim world when he fired up the grill and tossed a Koran on it. He may even have desired it. And for that and for his narcissistic incitements now and in the past, no doubt the God he purports to represent will consign Jones to hell when his time comes.

But there has been a tendency in the West to blame Jones for the deaths that have occurred since news of his crass act got out. Those murders, though, hang solely on those who committed them. The deaths say as much about the state of Islam in the developing world and about the development of Afghanistan as they do about Jones and his vainglorious attention seeking…

The first point I would like to raise is that, just because Terry Jones is detestable, it doesn’t mean that he is a murderer. The truth is that Qur’an burning is far from a rarity stories like this would have you believe. Videos of others doing this around the world can be easily found online. Do I support burning scripture? Of course not. Aside from being extremely offensive, it’s pointless since doing so paints those who set the religious texts on fire, not those who murder in response, as the extremists. Mind you, I also don’t see the point in spending money to buy a copy of the Qur’an, let alone the matches used to start the fire.

The second point I want to raise is something I find troubling. The naive belief that somehow Islam as a faith can be separating from Islam as a political movement.

…After 9/11, my colleague, Jonathan Kay, and I wrote a series of editorials for the Post arguing that what the Muslim world needed most was a Reformation in which verbal attacks on Muhammad and the faith were not taken as direct insults and defilements. An intellectual separation of church and state would be a good idea, too. Such enlightenment transformations had, over time, ended the crusades and most of the big religious wars among Christians and between Christianity and other faiths.

But because much of Islam has not gone through a similar evolution, the publication of Danish cartoons of Muhammad or false reports of a Koran flushing at Guantanamo Bay detention camp (both in 2005) or last month’s Koran burning by Terry Jones set off deadly spasms of protest in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia and elsewhere…

This idea wrongly assumes that the Protestant Reformation was in response to differences between scripture and Catholic teachings and traditions. Having actually studied the period in question, having read the personal writings of Martin Luther from the time he published the Ninety-Five Theses, religion was simply an excuse for what was predominantly a political movement. Luther was just the most successful critic in a long line of critics who believed that Catholic Church was sinful. The reason he escaped the fate of his predecessors is because of his political support. Luther’s criticisms, most notably his belief that man was defined through faith alone, the key point of contention between Catholics and Protestants to this day, was the excuse European royalty needed to turn the masses against the Church to seize political power and wealth the Vatican had amassed.

Am I saying that the Catholic Church, let alone Christianity, didn’t need the Reformation? Of course not. The Church and its leadership had become corrupt, concerning themselves with politics and riches instead of doing the work of God. The difference is that there wasn’t a shift in Catholic teachings, nor was there a significant shift in the religious beliefs in Europe because to the Reformation as the differences between the Christian faiths, for the most part, are fairly minor. Even Martin Luther had to revise many of his beliefs on Christianity, most notably the belief that man was defined through faith alone as it contradicted in the Book of James (James 2:24 “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only”).

The political landscape of Europe had changed, but that was pretty much it. To suggest that an event similar in Islam would somehow reform the religion and do away with Sharia, a key tenet of Islam, is laughable. One might as well ask Christians and Jews to ignore the Ten Commandments. Am I saying that Islam doesn’t need to be reformed? Of course not, but one would have to be incredibly naive to believe that the problems the world is facing because of Islam has to do with a few corrupt leaders. Andrew C. McCarthy made it clear in a recent piece that these problems lay with Islam itself.

If you have been reared in a culture that worships suicide bombers, that dehumanizes Jews as the children of monkeys and pigs, and that insists Israel is not merely the enemy but does not have a right to exist. And these positions, it bears emphasizing, do not represent some fringe Islam of al-Qaeda terrorists who have purportedly hijacked an otherwise peaceful religion. This is mainstream Islam, the sorts of things you would hear in a classroom at al-Azhar University or a television show on al-Jazeera — the place where, according to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, people turn for “real news,” the place where Muslim Brotherhood guru Yusuf Qaradawi lionizes suicide bombers in his popular weekly program, Sharia and Life.

Just because the vast majority of Muslims aren’t violent, that doesn’t mean they don’t condone the actions of jihadists. Contrary to what Gunter and others would believe, a Reformation-type movement wouldn’t be enough to fix these problems in Islam.

What Terry Jones’ burning of the Qur’an have revealed the dark nature of Islam. This barbarism has been going on for centuries, long before the Florida pastor took a lit match to the Islamic holy book, and this savagery will continue long after he and his congregation are a footnote in history. These religious teachings, contrary to what those like Lorne Gunter would believe, are just as much to blame for the deaths of the U.N. workers as those who carried out these horrific murders.

A Coren Clip: Coren on the Kennedys

Here’s a clip from yesterday’s episode of ‘The Michael Coren Show’ via SDAMatt2. If you haven’t already subscribed, I recommend doing so as ‘Mississauga Matt’ has a variety of videos of this nature, not just clips of this show. This clip is actually about two stories, both of which I will address later.

The first story refers to a column put out by The National Post’s Tasha Kheiriddin concerning a column written by Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. about Fox News and Canada’s political environment. Kennedy’s column is here, and suffice to say, it isn’t coherent, let alone well researched. It is simply a collection of rhetoric, misinformation and outright lies, typical fare for a Huffington Post columns. I have serious trouble taking this man seriously, especially considering his lengthy history with substance abuse and his support of radical environmental policies. I could go on to discuss all that is wrong with this column, but Tasha, who I’m not particularly a fan of (she’s too much like David Frum), already did an excellent job.

After Michael Coren set’s up the panel discussion, Laura Babcock begins it by demonstrating her ignorance and political bias. Fox News is problematic to the dialogue? This is typical liberal speak. The problem is that Fox News doesn’t echo her point of her and thus mustn’t be allowed to be part of the dialogue on any issue. Don’t we always hear from the left that more dialogue is better than less? She then goes to compare Fox News with Al Jazeera, a network that is, at the least, strongly connected to the Muslim Brotherhood. Last time I checked, neither Rupport Murdock nor Roger Ailes are connected with any terrorist organization. Also, unlike Al Jazeera which has a consistent anti-American/anti-Israel slant to its stories, Fox News does a far better job than most other news networks at providing balanced coverage. Even on their opinion shows like Bill O’Reilly’s ‘The Factor’, you hear from both sides of the political aisle. Laura should have taken her own advice on this and not commented on a news network that she has previously admitted she doesn’t watch.

Aside from tearing into Laura for her bias and ignorance, I would also like to point out something Michael Coren said. The reason why Al Jazeera has such “good” coverage of events in the Middle East is because they get their information from those carrying out terrorist attacks. Does this mean that we should ignore the network’s “news” reports? Of course not. At the very least, it provides us with a look into the minds of terrorists and their supporters. It is important, however, to understand that Al Jazeera is a support of Islamic extremism and that anything they report should be subjected to the harshest scrutiny.

The second story deals with the release previously redacted material from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) file of the late Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy. Judicial Watch broke this story, highlighting points of interest from the FBI files, with only one of them being discussed by the panel. Besides not discussion the whole story, which may or may not have been accidental, what irritated my about this discussion was that, knowing how misogynistic Ted was, something highlighted by his disgraceful, if not murderous actions at Chappaquiddick, July 18, 1969, which resulted in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, Laura still defends him, blaming his behaviour on Joseph Patrick Kennedy Sr., the late Senator’s father. “Sins of the son”? Last time I checked Laura, it wasn’t Joe that left Mary Jo to suffocate in that submerged car, it was Ted. This act alone outweighs most, if not any sin committed by Ted’s father. Twit…

Aside from the Ted’s sexual escapades at a brothel in Santiago, Judicial Watch points to another disturbing trend. During these visits to Latin America, Ted insisted on talking with the “the angry young men” of the country, specifically the communists and others who held similar left-wing views. While in Bogota, Ted demanded to meet with Lauchlin Currie,the Canadian-born economist and former economic adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt who was suspected of being a Soviet spy. While in Mexico, Kennedy demanded that Ambassador Mann invite various left-wing radicals to the Embassy residence so he could conduct interviews. Mann strongly opposed this, stating that if Ted wanted to interview these people, he would have to make the arrangements himself.

As Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey stated in his post on Judicial Watch’s findings, taking into consideration the “Yuri Andropov incident” in 1983, this shows Ted Kennedy to be, at worst, “a malicious political opportunist willing to sell out anything for his own personal ambitions.” I would go further, stating that, when one considers his support for Irish Republican Army (IRA), a Irish nationalist terrorist group founded in 1916, it is easy to see that the late Senator wasn’t simply a malicious political opportunist, but a far-left ideologue who was dedicated to forwarding a variety of radical fringe causes. Instead of discussion his sexually deviant behaviour, the panel could have discussed these findings. It would have been interesting to hear Coren’s and David Menzies’ opinion of this issue.

In the end, the true Kennedy legacy is far darker than the ‘Camelot’ fiction the media clings to. While dedicated leftists like Laura Babcock will continue to defend the media fiction, their efforts can’t prevent the information on the sins of the “American Royal Family” from getting out. It will take time, but history won’t remember the Kennedys for there “political accomplishments.” Pathetic…

UPDATE: Forgot to add this to the original post, so I will put it in as an update. Doug Powers at Michelle Malkin’s blog also posted on this, but with a focus on the millions of taxpayer dollars being spent on the Edward Moore Kennedy Institute, a “shrine” built to honour the disgraced late Senator. In my opinion, the Kennedy family and their supporters should pay for this institute. If they want to honour Ted’s memory, as well as ignore his countless shortcomings, they should foot the bill.

This waste of taxpayer money of Ted Kennedy’s behalf should surprise anyone, especially when you that the man himself, as Powers put it, “spent his political life handing out somebody else’s money and taking personal credit for the philanthropy”? Pathetic…

A Coren Clip: Weighing in on Wisconsin

As a Canadian, I would like to apologize for the stupidity you are about to see in this clip provided by SDAMatt2. It’s from Friday’s episode of ‘The Michael Coren Show’, but listening to what one panel member had to say about the Tea Party, you would think you were watching HBO’s ‘Real Time with Bill Maher’. You have been warned.

Before I start, I would like to mention something about Britt Aharoni. This is a radical who said on an episode earlier this month that former President George W. Bush was a terrorist who should be charged for war crimes. She not only said this, but “Britt the Twit” then went on to discuss how a court could go about doing exactly that. Suffice to say, she is far from the intellectual she pretends to be.

Britt starts this off by dismissing Michael Coren’s remarks on the nature of these kind of protest. As an example of this, she cites the behaviour of the protesters at last year’s G20 summit in Toronto, stating that it was only a very small group of protesters that were violent. Oh really?

Britt’s trying to downplay what actually occurred, pretending that the Black Bloc weren’t getting support from the other protesters. The video shows this claim to be downright false as Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) members are actually shielding the more violent protesters from the cameras. Aside from CUPE, members of the Koffler Student Centre and the Graduate Students’ Union at the University of Toronto were arrested for assisting these very rioters, giving them shelter and trying to hide their weapons from authorities. It is clear that those responsible for the violence at the G20 summit and those who supported their efforts were far from the minority Britt would like us to believe they were.

After lying about this, Britt then goes on to suggest that this behaviour is somehow comparable to that of the Tea Party. We didn’t see Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin or any other conservative figure advocating violence, and yet earlier this week Democrat Congressman Michael Capuano telling union protesters that they are going to need to “get a little bloody when necessary.” (hat-tip Michelle Malkin and The Right Scoop at TheRightScoop.com) This isn’t about democracy, not when protesters take to the streets denouncing a democratically elected politician, calling this same politician a tyrannical dictator and threaten violence if they don’t get their way. As bad as comparing this behaviour to how the vast majority of Tea Partiers have behaved, Britt had only begun her slanderous tirade.

“Britt the Twit” follows this up by stating that not only is the vitriol demonstrated in this video found predominantly in the Tea Party, but that the Tea Party itself is actually a “white power movement.” It wasn’t a Tea Party member who assaulted a FreedomWorks activist this week. It wasn’t a Tea Party member that was caught earlier this week saying “I’ll fuck you in the ass, you faggot!” It wasn’t a Tea Party member who said “The Tea Party is a bunch of dick-sucking corporate butt-lickers who want to crush the working people of this country.” As for racism, Michelle Malkin’s most recent column highlights not only the racism, but also the sexism and homophobia in these rallies, pointing to the more outrageous incidents we have seen this week, as well as a post by El Marco at LookingattheLeft.com displaying the signs carried by the protesters. As much as Britt would like to deny it, this vitriol came from union protesters. If the Tea Party had been caught doing the same, we wouldn’t hear the end of it.

I could go on to discuss Sid Ryan’s defense of Britt’s comments, but it would be redundant. It isn’t as if anyone expected Sid to denounce what she said, let alone point out what’s actually happening in Wisconsin, especially considering that he will not waiver in his support for the labour movement. I could go on to discuss Michael Coren and Claire Hoy’s response to Britt’s and Sid’s comments, but that too would be redundant as much of what they said I have also said refuting Britt’s claims. There is a reason why I spent so much time focusing on the remarks of one panel member instead commenting on what everyone had to say.

What really upsets me about all this is that Britt is portrayed as an intellectual, someone who has a unique perspective on these events and who’s opinion should be respected. Nothing could be further from the truth. This radical displays all the signs of an indoctrinated drone. Listening to her talk about how awful the Tea Party is, claiming that she gets her information from the media (mostly likely MSNBC), shows just how empty headed this moron is. It doesn’t matter to her that, as Seton Motley pointed out, that the vast majority of this Obama-Hitler nonsense, including the Obama-with-Mustache poster, comes from Lyndon LaRouche and LaRouchePAC. Britt will not waiver from this narrative no matter what the facts are. Years of programming by misinformed and misguided authority figures will not allow her to come to any other conclusion.

This isn’t someone who deserves any attention, let alone a panel seat on ‘The Michael Coren Show’. It would be nice if Britt Aharoni just kept her mouth shut, especially since it is quiet clear that she hasn’t anything intelligent, let alone honest, to say. Pathetic…

Sarkozy Speaks: Multiculturalism Has Failed in France

Here’s the video of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s opinion that multiculturalism has failed in France. Thanks goes to Eeyore at Vlad Tepes for the clip.

There is a correction on the translation provided in the video. At 3:52 Sarkozy actually says, “We are a laïque country” (kind of secularism).

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was the first European leader to admit multiculturalism failed, and British Prime Minister David Cameron said the same last week. For those who keep demanding that North America follow Europe’s example, what do you have to say about this? I would definitely support Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper if he wanted to make similar statements about multiculturalism in Canada. I don’t think President Barack Obama has the courage to make such a statement, but I doubt that would be a problem for a Republican successor. John Sexton is right, it is about time that America, as well as Canada, take this step.

When we talk about the failure of multiculturalism, we aren’t talking about the failure of people to accept others of different cultures. Canada is accepting to a fault in this regard. What we are talking about is the failure of others to accept the culture of the country they are moving to. A growing problem with an increasingly intolerant Muslim community that is unwilling to be part of Western society. For example, we saw this kind of intolerance recently when a dozen Muslim families demanded that Winnipeg’s Louis Riel School Division allow their children excused from compulsory elementary school music and coed physical education programs for religious and cultural reasons. Here’s the discussion on ‘The Michael Coren Show’ concerning this story via SDAMatt2.

I’ll end this post with two more videos. The first is another clip from ‘The Michael Coren Show’ with Wednesday’s panel discussing David Cameron’s belief that multiculturalism has failed in the United Kingdom. The second is from British writer Pat Condell. Though I don’t agree with much he has to say, especially his ignorant and downright hateful statements on Christianity, I do think he make a good point in his latest video concerning the British Prime Minister’s comments.

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