In a turnaround from their previous criticism of Harper’s prorogation of Parliament, the magazine has also praised his ability to “govern for four years without a parliamentary majority.”

A list of notable individuals who were killed is below. Rest in peace.

Lech Kaczyński, President of Poland

Maria Kaczyńska, First Lady of Poland

Krystyna Bochenek, Deputy Speaker of the Senat

Vice Admiral Andrzej Karweta, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy of Poland

Przemysław Gosiewski, member of the Sejm/former Deputy Prime Minister

Janusz Kochanowski, Polish Ombudsman

Piotr Nurowski, President of the Polish Olympic Committee

General Franciszek Gągor, Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army

Tadeusz Płoski, bishop of the Military Ordinariate of the Polish Army

Sławomir Skrzypek, President of the National Bank of Poland

Anna Walentynowicz

Ryszard Kaczorowski, President of the Polish Government-in-Exile (during the Soviet occupation)

Aleksander Szczygło, Head of the National Security Bureau

Multiple Members of the Sejm and Senat

____

Tonight I went out to the bars downtown. It was a great night with my roommate Mark Klibanov. Around 1:45am, as we were leaving the bar, and we heard the shout of “Zionist” in Arabic. As it stands now, we weren’t sure if the shouts were directed at myself, a known a supporer of Israel, or Mark, an actual Israeli.

I ran, and as I looked back, I saw the long shiny blade slicing through the air about 12 inches from my neck. I ran as fast I could and, thanks to my grade 9 track and field training, got away.

People who were around the scene said the blade came within inches of my neck.

But I will say this. Some of the guys who tried to kill us are Carleton students and I recognize who they are. What is this country coming to?

____

I will echo that sentiment. What is this country coming to where people are attacked, with weapons, by their fellow students for taking a political stance? For being of a certain religion? For being supporters of a certain country?

The Canada I call home is a Canada of freedom. It values the concept that one should be allowed to state their mind freely, without the threat of physical violence. The individuals who attacked Mr. Bergamini do not represent the fundamental values of Canadian society.

I am glad that Mr. Bergamini is safe, I am thankful that he chose to share his experiences with us, and I am confident that these individuals will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Filed under: Blog Posts ]]> http://deumcolere.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/pro-israel-students-attacked-at-carleton-u/feed/ 6 Deum Colere http://deumcolere.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/coulter-speech-cancelled/ http://deumcolere.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/coulter-speech-cancelled/#comments Wed, 24 Mar 2010 02:12:19 +0000 Deum Colere http://deumcolere.wordpress.com/?p=395 ]]> Ann Coulter, a prominent and controversial American political commentator, has had her planned speech to a group of students at the University of Ottawa cancelled by the organizers, who cite concerns of violence at the event. Ezra Levant, a respected conservative figure, said that there was a “risk of physical violence”. According to The Globe and Mail, students had pulled fire alarms to cause evacuation of the building where Coulter was scheduled to speak. Coulter, who was warned by the provost of the University of Ottawa to avoid “hate speech”, certainly has an inflammatory style that many in Canadian politics are not used to – but one that she shares with left-wing activists such as (her example) Michael Moore, who, according to her, has never received such a warning.

Naturally, I disagree with any warning given to a speaker on the grounds of the idea of free speech being paramount. It galls me even more that the university appears to be targeting only one side of the political spectrum, a trend which has become all the more apparent in recent years. In spite of the fact that I disagree with some, even many, of Coulter’s views, and that I believe she should state them more civilly, the university still has no right to lecture her on what to say or impede on her right to say it.

Unfortunately, threats of violence have become an acceptable way to remove speakers, especially right-wing and pro-Israel speakers, from campus events. All the students opposed to the speakers need to do are to send some letters, make some Facebook posts, and drop the right hints here and there, and suddenly, the speaker they dislike is gone, and the majority of the student body then only has one opinion to listen to – the opinion which is endorsed by the small, violent group.

That is not freedom of speech. Canada’s universities should be providing security, quelling out-of-order disturbances (there is nothing wrong with protests, but they must be peaceful), and doing whatever is necessary to ensure that diverse opinions can be broadcast on campus. Universities who do not take these steps are not worthy of receiving our money – taxes or tuition. And why should they? No institution which allows only one point of view should ever be allowed to call itself an educational one.

The shaking has been felt as far north as Peru, and places as far away as Costa Rica and Hawaii are facing tsunami warnings. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says that places as far away as Canada, Russia, and Australia could be effected to some degree, mostly by flooding (nothing exceptionally dangerous, but it wouldn’t be very wise to hang around the beach). Aftershocks of magnitudes at up to 6.2 have been occurring.

Over a hundred are confirmed dead, with that total expected to rise exponentially. The effected areas contain millions of people.

More news as it comes in.

Naturally, one sits there and thinks of Harper as this mean old man, only going into Haiti to take a shot at the opposition, and using poor innocent Haitians and the troops trying to help them as a platform for his work. I wouldn’t blame anyone new to Canadian politics who saw the headline and had those thoughts flash through their mind.

But of course, they would be wrong. Even though the next few paragraphs take continual swipes at Harper, such as calling him “boastful”, Galloway manages to avoid a completely astronomical bias by including Harper’s quote. Of course, they did so in the best possible place for them in the article, so that they could get his opinion out of the way quickly and move on to finishing the smear job, but nonetheless, the quote is there.

It reads:

“This fleet of new aircraft, the C-17 fleet, is a big part of making this response possible. I single out the C-17 for a reason. There was a time when that kind of heavy lift aircraft didn’t fit Canada’s soft-power policies. But our government bought them for the hard-power requirements of today’s world. Now we’re using them for relief work. What is the moral of the story? To do soft power, you need hard power. You need a full range of capabilities.”

It seems to me that Harper was saying that Harper was commenting on a different times, different policies viewpoint. While he did say that one needs hard power for effective soft power, he did also say that this was true in the modern world as opposed to the previous era. In spite of the huge flaws with Liberal defense policy, which kept our military strength artificially low and caused massive flaws all around the services, all he said was that, in essence, different times require different methods for success – hardly an attack on anyone. If that was a “swipe” at the Liberal Party, then it was a very weak one at best, considering he didn’t actually attack them at all.

The world has changed, and nobody disputes that. Unless, of course, a Conservative says it.

Filed under: Blog Posts ]]> http://deumcolere.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/globe-going-all-out/feed/ 5 Deum Colere http://deumcolere.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/kevin-rudd-down-in-austrialian-polls/ http://deumcolere.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/kevin-rudd-down-in-austrialian-polls/#comments Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:53:04 +0000 Deum Colere http://deumcolere.wordpress.com/?p=383 ]]> The Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, of the Australian Labor Party, has taken his hardest hit yet in national polling, conducted by Newspoll and The Australian. Their primary vote (Australia operates a two-party-preferred voting system) has fallen below the 40% marker to 39%, whereas the centre-right Liberal/National coalition has increased their share to 40%. While Labor still leads the Coalition on secondary votes, largely due to the influence of the Greens, who maintain a first choice rating of 12%, the margin is much narrower than in the past. Likewise, Rudd is down significantly in the performance and better Prime Minister categories from his past totals, whereas Tony Abbot of the Liberals has made gains, though he still lags behind.

The item which appears to have riled Rudd’s former supporters the most, and which has likewise increased Abbot’s polling, is Rudd’s carbon emissions plan, which  will put an open market price on carbon. Abbot, who became Leader of the Opposition as a result of a caucus revolt against Malcolm Turnbull caused partially by Turnbull’s support of the plan, is an avowed climate skeptic in a country where many are apt to believe the consensus. Therefore, it was considered unlikely that his polling numbers would go anywhere, but perhaps surprisingly, a plurality of Australians now approve of his performance, by a margin of 44% to 37%, with 19% undecided. This marks a huge change from last November, where his disapproval rating was 16% higher than his approval rating.

None of this data looks good for Kevin Rudd, especially when the Liberals made a gain of over twelve points in a safe Labor seat in the February 13th by-election.

You can see the results here in more detail.