Eye on a Crazy Planet

Black History Month: The unknown story of Toronto’s first black postman

2012-02-11T14:01:00.000-05:00

When Albert Jackson showed up for his first day of work as a mailman, on May 17, 1882, the other letter carriers refused to show him the rounds. The reason: He was black.

The incident was reported by the press, which wrote about “the obnoxious coloured man.” White letter carriers and office staff were indignant that a black man was appointed to the job, which placed him in a higher rank than some white employees.

The postal service reassigned Jackson to the menial job of hall porter, hoping to defuse the situation. It didn’t.
For several weeks, the story of Toronto’s first black postman was hotly debated in the city’s newspapers. On Jackson’s first day of work, white mail carriers told The Evening Telegram his appointment by the government was “a most impolitic move.”

Toronto’s black community was galvanized into action and supported Jackson, a former child slave from the United States who had escaped to Canada along the Underground Railroad.

They were determined to see Jackson working his mail route and took their demands to John A. Macdonald, the prime minister. It was an election year, and they were heard. Wanting to please black voters, Macdonald intervened.

Read the rest at The Toronto Star

Saturday Morning Movie: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

2012-02-11T08:01:00.000-05:00

Breaking News: George Galloway is still a lying scumbag

2012-02-10T22:43:00.001-05:00

Galloway has aligned himself with depraved anti-Semites like Mahathir Mohamed in order to promote his money-sucking scam, Viva Palestina!

h/t Sassy Wire

McGill Prof Gil Troy discusses the fanaticism seeking to destroy Israel

2012-02-10T11:18:00.010-05:00

Israel is a tiny country, about the size of Rhode Island. In population its size is less than ten percent of each of regional neighbours Egypt, Turkey or Iran.

It is a stable westernized liberal democracy, the only country that can be so described in the middle east, and is the subject of a compulsive focus and vilification in some quarters.

Honest Reporting Canada presented an intimate talk last night by McGill University History Professor Gil Troy about the distortions and obsession that Israel stimulates in the media and on campuses.

Gil Troy

One of the points that emerged is how university campuses are like a looking glass world, where everything is, in many ways, backwards. This is particularly the case as far as liberal arts are concerned. Karl Marx, along with his followers and ideologies that caused millions of deaths are almost universally reviled , but on western campuses, he is still idolized by many university professors and students with an aggrandized sense of entitlement and whose concept of reality shows little comprehension of the world outside the ivory tower.

Troy suggested that the best approach is being reasonable and truthful in the face of lies, lsuch as the absurd propaganda campaign to delegitimize Israel through the false label of "apartheid."

In fact Marx has a lot to do with Israel's demonization in the west. It's no coincidence that many, if not most of the academics seeking to delegitimize Israel are Marxists who see Israel as a symbol of western capitalism. That, said Troy, is one of the indications of the anti-Semitism that has creeped into and often drives the anti-Israel movement.

Israel, a beacon of democracy and hope amid a region where its neighbours have abysmal human rights records, has the truth as its defense. But in a maelstrom of lies and distortions by bigots and Islamists and their useful campus idiots, the truth sometimes must struggle to be heard.

Honest Reporting Canada has done much to make sure that lies about Israel in the media are exposed. They were most recently instrumental in bringing public attention to the vicious anti-Israel hate speech of fanatical Quebec TV host and small-town political boss Stephane Gendron, who pronounced, "Israel doesn't deserve to exist," and whose televised diatribes have combined anti-Semitism with his twisted hatred of the Jewish state.

It's lies and those who promote them that are a blight we would be better off without. The challenge of having the fortitude and courage to stand up to hateful propagandists unfortunately is one that will remain ongoing for some time.

City Council gives finger to mayor & city and votes for more traffic congestion and neighborhood disruption

2012-02-08T19:45:00.006-05:00

Mayor Ford tells city council the people of Toronto do not want another St. Clair West fiasco.

He asked for a study on the best practice and the smug leftists on council laughed when he said it's best to do what's in the city's best interest and not to "play politics."

Some might claim the laughter was because they think Ford routinely plays politics. I'd suggest that for Councillors like Adam Vaughan and Joe Mihevc to be able to restrain their uncontrollable ideological bent is so impossible as to be a joke.

The City loses again.

UPDATE:While the councillors who voted against the subway were congratulating themselves after the vote, Rob Ford was riding the subways hearing how people who use the TTC support his plan.

Nortel Show Trial Update: Crown's case continues to unravel

2012-02-08T19:26:00.003-05:00

The testimony of witness after witness in the Nortel show trial appears to demonstrate the the Crown doesn't have a case in the fraud prosecution of three senior Executives. Fraud by definition involves deceit, and the Crown has consistently been thwarted in every effort to show that Former Nortel CEO Frank Gunn, CFO Douglas Beatty and Controller Michael Gollogly were anything but forthcoming with the firm's auditors and board.

According to a report in the Financial Post, today's star Crown witness, Sue Shaw, the chief handler of financial consolidation records for the one-time telecom giant’s corporate books, testified to Crown prosecutors earlier this week that $66-million in accrued liabilities had been identified as early as mid-2002 as being no longer necessary to account for. It meant the sum should have been released into quarterly results, a common practice at Nortel at the time.

The Crown alleges the sum, alongside millions more in balance-sheet provisions, never made it to the income statement. Instead, the values were shifted to later periods, an Ontario Superior Court of Justice trial has heard.

Except, it turns out that Ms Shaw actually didn't know what she was talking about.

As The Post detailed:

David Porter, lawyer for former chief executive Frank Dunn, Wednesday entered into evidence a December, 2002 email between Nortel finance officials with an attached spreadsheet. A number of corporate reserves were listed as being dispatched to Nortel’s third-quarter 2002 income. It was presumably a document Ms. Shaw had not seen before.

“It appears that sixty-six million was released in that period,” the witness said. The direct repudiation undercut a central allegation by the Crown in its fraud case..

Oops! Seems yet again, the prosecution is made a fool of in this case. One wonders when pursuing obviously incorrect charges becomes an embarrassment and undermines the administration of justice in Ontario. The longer this trial continues without a summary judgement in favour of the defense, the more glaring that question becomes.

McGill Student Communists and Buffoons end "occupation" of Administrative Offices

2012-02-08T13:46:00.004-05:00

From CTV News: MONTREAL — A few dozen McGill students continued a sit-in Wednesday at the James Administration building over a disagreement with administrators over funding for certain student bodies, notably the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) and CKUT Radio.

The students camped overnight outside the sixth floor office of McGill Deputy Provost Morton Mendelson as well as on the first floor.

Some complained that they had been refused entry to the bathroom facilities and were not allowed to return once they had left.

The students are upset that brass has declined to recognize the results of a student referendum which showed that about two-thirds of students favour the continuation of QPIRG.

The administrators responded by saying that the question was unclear. The two sides have met but failed to come to a resolution.

QPIRG provides resources to students with projects that have a, "mandate of social justice and environmental activism."

----
Just to be clear, The Communist, terrorist fan-club QPIRG which in its sister group at Concordia recently celebrated the works of a German terrorist responsible for the murders of a number of innocent civilians, was upset that McGill was allowing it students to opt out of compulsory payments to it from their student activitiy fees.

That means they got the money that student's didn't necessarily want to give them, and they were upset that the University was making it just a bit easier for students to not have to fork money over to subsidize their fanatical, communist BS.

That the students who are in QPIRG can even get to enroll in McGill is a comment on the declining standards of Canadian universities.

Just to get a sense of the stupidity and sense of entitlement these half-wits possess, get a load of this comment from student Sami Fink, who was among a group of students gathered outside the administration building, chanting support for the sit-in, who, according to CBC News, said she is upset with the tact the university is taking:

“Other administrations have been known to send pizza and support student democracy, but McGill is taking a hard-line stance.."

That's right, she's upset that McGill Administration isn't buying pizza for the demonstrators illegally occupying their offices. This country is in deep trouble if that vapid expression of thought is any indication of the generation of graduates our schools are producing.

Iranian lawmaker wants to ban Samsung products over "insulting" Israeli ad

2012-02-07T17:16:00.000-05:00

A senior lawmaker says Iran's Majlis is considering a plan to cut off the country's economic transactions with South Korea's Samsung in reaction to the company's anti-Iran teaser.

Head of Majlis Energy Committee Arsalan Fat'hipour said the double-urgency plan, aimed at imposing a complete ban on buying all Samsung products, would make the company regret making the insulting teaser.

Embassy Magazine shilling for Iran

2012-02-07T15:40:00.000-05:00

Embassy Magazine publishes the Toronto Star's resident Islamist Harroon Siddiqui, so it shouldn't be a surprise that they would promote the interests of Islamic Republics.

But as something that purports to be "Canada’s influential foreign policy newspaper," it's interesting to see that they are trying to exert influence in favour of a murderous, theocratic dictatorship.

Hollywood does Canadian History: Hudson's Bay (1941)

2012-02-07T12:10:00.002-05:00

The St. Clair West fiasco should be a lesson for Toronto Council

2012-02-07T09:59:00.001-05:00

A looming battle at Toronto's City Hall over the future of the municipality's public transportation is going to settle less about that issue than it is a stage for the mayor's opponents to flex some muscle where they see an opportunity. City Council is a continual conflict between the committed socialist and conservative factions, with the outcome decided by a few non-aligned politicians who vote, depending on who were talking about, either on the basis of their assessment of a proposal or on what they see as the most personally advantageous position to take.

The Transit City battle pits the mayor and his allies who want a subway against the Millerite socialists who are pushing for an above-ground light rail system that was the legacy of the so-called Transit City proposal.

But what is actually best for the city?

The mayor argues that the above ground system's requirement to have exclusive use of two traffic lanes would increase congestion on an already gridlocked road, while providing only slightly better travel time than a streetcar.

The light rail supporters claim the subway's expense is unfeasible despite a recently commissioned study which reported a contrary conclusion.

If recent history is a guide,it appears the real motive of the light rail advocates seems to be more a disdain for Toronto Mayor Rob Ford than the best transit proposal for the city.

A few years ago, a similar proposal to the light rail was put into place on St. Clair Avenue West. A pair of dedicated streetcar lanes was supposed to streamline transit, speed up travel times and revitalize the area at a relatively minor cost. The project was shepherded by the Toronto Transit Commission Vice Chair and Ward 21 Councillor Joe Mihevc, one of the main backers of the current light rail proposal.

The St. Clair line was handled devastatingly badly. It ran three times the cost estimate, it did irreparable damage to a number of local businesses as traffic was disrupted over the years of construction that went far beyond the time it was supposed to have been completed.

As someone remarked to me at the time, "Why couldn't the city just paint two yellow lines around the inside lanes, put up 'streetcar only' signs, and save 5 years and $100 million?" At the time, the answer seemed to be because politicians love spending other people's money and the power and influence that comes along with it.

Now, years later, traffic on St Clair, which has two more lanes than the relatively narrow Eglinton Avenue, is bottle-necked for cars at major intersections and the streetcars continue their old practice of moving in packs, meaning sometimes three will show up within two minutes leaving riders an up to 20 minute wait at times. Once you're on the streetcar, the ravel time between Christie and Yonge Streets, which is about half the length of the St. Clair line, has only improved by about three to four minutes from the days before dedicated lanes dominated the street.

The above ground dedicated lanes have also created a new barrier between the north and south sides of St.Clair which makes it more difficult for pedestrians to cross the street, leading to an unusual north/south divide that hadn't existed.

None of this has happened on Bloor/Danforth of University where the city's current subway lines speed people to their destination efficiently and at faster speeds than cars could take them through the city's crowded roads.

Bruce McCuaig, the head of Metrolinx, the Ontario government agency responsible for transportation coordination, has just chimed into the debate on the mayor's side, saying Mr. Ford’s preferred plan for underground light rail on Eglinton Avenue “delivers greater benefit” than the Transit City version a coalition of councillors want to revive.

For those of us who have seen what that coalition of councilors achieved in the past, Mr. McCuaig's assessment sounds like a 'no-brainer'. Unfortunately, when talking about City Council and a few of its members who are oppositional because of ideology and grudges, sometimes a no-brainer requires more brains than they seem to have.

Here's a statistic that might cause problems for Apple's iPhone

2012-02-06T19:25:00.003-05:00

Android users more likely to have sex on the 1st date.

Niall Ferguson: There are plenty of arguments against an Israeli attack on Iran. And all of them are bad

2012-02-06T17:11:00.003-05:00

...picture the scene once described to me by a four-star general. It is not the proverbial 3 a.m. but 11 p.m. in the White House (7 a.m. in Israel). The phone rings.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Mr. President, we have reliable intelligence that the Israeli Air Force is in the air and within an hour of striking suspected nuclear facilities in Iran.

POTUS: Damn. What should I do?

CJCS: Mr. President, I want to recommend that you provide the Israelis with all necessary support to limit the effectiveness of Iranian retaliation.

POTUS: But those [expletives deleted] never ran this past me. They went behind my back, goddammit.

CJCS: Yes, sir.

POTUS: Why the hell should I lift a finger to help them?

CJCS: Because if the Iranians close the Strait of Hormuz, we will see oil above $200 a barrel.

POTUS [after a pause]: Just a moment. [Whispers] How am I doing in Florida?

David Axelrod [also whispering]: Your numbers suck.

POTUS: OK, General, line up those bunker busters.

Read Niall Ferguson's article at The Daily Beast

Stanford Law School embarrasses itself by celebrating a 9-11 conspiracy nut and terror-apologist

2012-02-06T16:34:00.001-05:00

Seven decades later, how does the UN live up to the vision and resolve of its founders?

An event this evening at Stanford University is a sobering reminder that some of what is said and done today in the name of the UN would cause Roosevelt and Churchill to roll in their graves.

The human rights clinic of the law faculty, headed by Professor James Cavallaro, a former Human Rights Watch activist, has decided to give its platform, in the form of a public lecture and reception, to Richard Falk, a UN expert and former Princeton academic.

While he appears highly qualified and is well versed in the language of human rights, the reality is that Falk’s twisted moral vision negates the UN founders’ dream, recasting tyrants, terrorists and teachers of hatred as heroic victims resisting colonialist oppression.

As the world focuses on the Iranian government’s mad race for a nuclear bomb, and its brutal repression of peaceful student activists, Stanford’s human rights scholars ought to recall that Falk was a key promoter of this regime’s establishment.

Days after Ayatollah Khomeini seized power in 1979, Falk reassured the world, in a New York Times op-ed titled “Trusting Khomeini,” that “the depiction of him as fanatical, reactionary and the bearer of crude prejudices seems certainly and happily false.”

Khomeini’s entourage, wrote Falk, had “a notable record of concern for human rights.” Indeed, the ayatollah’s “new model of popular revolution” offered the world “a desperately-needed model of humane governance for a third-world country.”

More at UN Watch

Newt Gingrich's new message: Romney = Obama

2012-02-06T14:33:00.000-05:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Combat Footage smuggled out of Syria

2012-02-06T12:21:00.001-05:00

BBC News snuck a team into Syria and produced this shocking video of the civil war currently underway.

h/t Sassy Wire

BREAKING NEWS: Still no plans for the Sea Hitler to make a mercy mission to Syria:

If you thought "giant shrimp" was an oxymoron before, get ready for this!

2012-02-06T11:29:00.000-05:00

The "supergiant" amphipods are more than 20 times larger than their typical crustacean relatives, which are generally less than a half-inch (1 centimeter) long, and thrive in lakes and oceans around the world. They are sometimes called the "insects of the sea."..

The pale, leggy creatures were found 4 miles (6 kilometers) down in the Kermadec Trench, off the northeast coast of New Zealand, one of the deepest trenches on Earth.

More at Our Amazing Planet

Toronto Council considering removing itself from jurisdiction of Ontario Municipal Board

2012-02-06T10:49:00.000-05:00

The Ontario Municipal Board is an unelected body appointed by the provincial government that has been the source of a number of horror stories.

People objecting to obtrusive, unwanted over-development in their neighbourhoods have been threatened with fines and hearing costs by the OMB. The OMB had forced development down the throats of communities, overruling elected representatives.

It's an undemocratic, administrative boondoggle that should never have been brought into existence.

Toronto City Council is currently considering the proposal to ask the Province to abolish the OMB.

Let's hope they make the right decision and vote YES.

Best of Super Bowl XLVI Commercials

2012-02-06T09:54:00.001-05:00

For those of you who didn't catch them (perhaps because you live somewhere like Canada)

You can pick through the list in the widget below:

And for those of you who haven't seen the Swedish sheep herding bunny yet..

2012-02-05T23:16:00.000-05:00

Another Arab Spring Triumph - Egyptian actor sentenced to prison for "insulting Islam"

2012-02-05T21:11:00.002-05:00

The sentence Wednesday evening came weeks after Islamists swept most seats in a parliamentary election. The case was brought by Asran Mansour, a lawyer with ties to Islamist groups, and had languished in court for months, judicial sources said.

Mansour accused the actor of offending Islam and its symbols, including beards and the Jilbab, a loose-fitting garment worn by some Muslims, the Egyptian news portal Ahramonline reported.

Does anyone remember that attention-seeking airhead who wanted to bring an Arab Spring to Canada? She should consider going to Egypt to experience the real thing.

Union concessions avoid Toronto municipal strike

2012-02-05T18:28:00.004-05:00

The details aren't out yet, and won't be until the union ratifies the deal. It's unlikely the deal will be rejected because the city's administration was looking for the union to hand them a "go ahead, make my day" moment.

Marcus Gee of the Globe and Mail wrote up an excellent summary:

.. the city set a deadline of a minute after midnight on Feb. 5. Many had assumed the city would lock out its workers at that time if a deal had not been reached. The union's propaganda for the last couple of weeks seemed intended to portray it as the injured party if workers were indeed locked out. Mr. Ferguson was suddenly all moderation and optimism, saying first that the union would agree to settle for no pay increase and that it had no plans to strike. If it came to a lockout, he could say: We were talking and making concessions, so why the need to lock us out of our jobs?

But on Friday, in an unusual and aggressive move, the city said that it would not lock out the union at midnight. Instead it would impose new working conditions set out in its most recent contract proposal. The city was demanding more flexibility in how it deploys and, if necessary, lays off its employees.

The tactic put the union in a fix. Going to work on Monday morning as usual under new city-imposed conditions might have seemed like a tacit acceptance of them, a fait accompli. Suddenly calling a strike in protest at the city's move would have been equally tough for the union, given they had said they had no strike plans. Mr. Ferguson called the city a “bully” for making the threat but stayed at the bargaining table. Some time in the dark hours of Sunday morning, a deal was done.

Deportation stayed against Iranian in Canada

2012-02-05T12:39:00.002-05:00

Kavoos Soofi arrived in Canada from Iran on a student visa in 2004. Once in Canada, he denounced the Iranian regime and Islam on his facebook page and has applied for refugee status on the grounds that he would be imprisoned, tortured or even kiled if he was returned to Iran.

After an initial rejection of his application and Soofi going on a hunger strike, his appeal was successful and he can stay for now. The reason his application was rejected was because Immigration officials didn't think his facebook postings would place his safety in serious danger.

Immigration Canada officials need to know that any Iranian who denounces Islam or the totalitarian regime in any public way is in jeopardy from the sociopathic Iranian dictatorship.

Gary McHale could have avoided all the trouble by renaming his group "Occupy Caledonia"

2012-02-05T08:31:00.001-05:00

Apparently, if you stick "Occupy" in front of your name, the police let you do whatever you like.

McHale and his law-abiding group, get another form of treatment:

CAYUGA Law and order activist Gary McHale is planning another protest at the scene of a six-year-old native occupation in Caledonia after trespassing charges were dropped against the so-called Caledonia Eight for entering the property last year...

McHale, leader of Canadian Advocates for Charter Equality (CANACE), argues that the Ontario Provincial Police have practised “two-tier justice” in Caledonia during the land claims dispute by treating natives more leniently than non-natives.

Douglas Creek Estates, a former housing development, was occupied by a group from Six Nations in Feb. 2006 because they say it was being built on unsurrendered land. McHale and some of his supporters entered the site Dec. 3, 2011, but said they were not trespassing on the Ontario government-owned property because they were on a road allowance owned by Haldimand County.

“It’s completely legal,” McHale told the Dunnville Chronicle about walking on the road allowance.
“They have the opportunity to prove to the public that they honour the Charter of Rights and Freedoms for all people, but I believe the OPP will find a different tactic this time … they’ll find some trick once again to target us even though we’re doing a peaceful march down a road.”

h/t Blazing Cat Fur

Holy Saturday Morning Fun!

2012-02-04T08:04:00.001-05:00

The whole Batman movie from 1966!