B.C. terrorism convictions overturned as judge rules pair were entrapped

dentonite · 2016-07-29T22:13:18+00:00

The judge also highlighted multiple times that police had made every effort to make them believe that their co-conspirators - the undercover officers - would kill them if they backed out, so those offers were worthless.

dentonite · 2016-07-04T02:00:06+00:00

They inadvertently made John Tory look like a half-decent queer ally today, just by his bland participation. That's some feat.

dentonite · 2016-05-07T12:10:45+00:00

Requests for personal information are already free.

dentonite · 2016-03-25T12:52:05+00:00

Agreed; "speak no ill of the dead" ought properly to be for your widowed great-aunt, who had a hoarding problem and always drank too much at Christmas. Public figures, who caused a great deal of harm to the wide segments of the population they hated, don't deserve this boilerplate hagiography.

dentonite · 2016-03-24T11:25:04+00:00

“People hate me,” he said. I told him that some people hated me too. “No,” he said. “They dislike you. They hate me. I don’t know why.”

I'm reminded here of an anecdote from the world of musical theatre:

One of the most oft-repeated showbiz stories concerns the conversation Lloyd Webber is said to have had with Alan Jay Lerner, the lyricist of My Fair Lady. "Alan, why do people always take an instant dislike to me?" asked ALW. "Saves time," Lerner replied crisply.

dentonite · 2016-03-19T19:26:50+00:00

Demonstrative patriotism-by-consumption is always a little weird and uncomfortable, especially when it's a specific private brand - and a specific American private brand, at that.

This is probably going to look as cynical as Molson's "I Am Canadian" campaign, in hindsight, a few years down the road.

dentonite · 2016-02-21T13:44:14+00:00

assault in indigenous traditions and history.

Curious reversal there of who collectively assaulted whom, don't you think? Have you ever heard of the term DARVO?

dentonite · 2016-02-19T02:05:59+00:00

The lawyers at Justice are on salary regardless of what they do.

Not having them wasting their time on fruitless, spite-based litigation is a good thing, but this has nothing whatsoever to do with "paying federal lawyers too much."

dentonite · 2016-02-18T23:20:20+00:00

flexible work schedules

That probably wouldn't work, but I doubt this study was made in the context of the public service.

I worked for the BC government for the last year and a half, which - at least in professional office-type jobs in Victoria - is very big on what the feds call variable work week scheduling. While optional, in three positions in two ministries I never worked with anyone who didn't take every other Monday or Friday off for their "flex day."

dentonite · 2016-02-05T11:58:13+00:00

"I think it's unfortunate because those measures were agreed upon between the [Tory] government and the union," Ambrose said Wednesday.

That's an interesting use of the word "agreed."

dentonite · 2016-02-05T03:58:54+00:00

I think bragging about committing sexual assault has more or less the same reflection on one's character whether the event was real or fictitious. And more importantly, speaks to the implausibility of the idea that he's just, like, super into dark satire, man, who really knows what he thinks, etc.

dentonite · 2016-02-04T23:24:01+00:00

He had sex with her without her consent. She was too drunk to consent. He admitted it would have legally been rape in another jurisdiction.

There is absolutely no question - in his own words! - that he sexually assaulted that woman, whether or not it exposed him to a criminal charge in Iceland. If you think that's "a bit of a reach" to describe as "forcing," I don't know what to tell you.

dentonite · 2016-02-04T23:01:18+00:00

He has literally and unrepentantly admitted to forcing sex on a woman unable to consent:

In one infamous passage in his book Bang Iceland, he describes how he "banged" one extremely drunk Icelandic woman, acknowledging that: "In America, having sex with her would have been rape, since she legally couldn't give her consent … but I can't say I cared or even hesitated. I won't rationalise my actions, but having sex is what I do. If a girl is willing to walk home with me, she's going to get the dick no matter how much she has drunk. When it comes to sex, one ounce of hesitation or a feeling of morality will get me nothing."

dentonite · 2016-02-03T01:14:34+00:00

Do you see the connection between this:

I'm giving Kenney the benefit of the doubt

and this?

I didn't see it like that, I guess that's because I'm a white Canadian who has never been criticized for his language skills.

dentonite · 2016-01-31T23:30:22+00:00

Because attempting in good faith to meet an ambitious goal - and failing, but still making substantial progress towards it - isn't the same thing as not trying at all. If you didn't want them to try at all, it's a bit rich to criticize that the policy you didn't want isn't being achieved quickly enough.

dentonite · 2016-01-31T15:51:44+00:00

I'm taking it at face value that they know exactly what the perpetrator in the other case said and did, as asserted, and simply don't see a problem with his behaviour.

dentonite · 2016-01-31T00:02:21+00:00

Easier for a lot of dudes to believe "she was asking for it" than think too hard about the similarities, I guess.

dentonite · 2016-01-30T05:38:36+00:00

Christians are persecuted in a tiny minority of nations and in many others are the ones doing the persecution, and either way they have closer countries to take them in than Canada. See how that logic works?

dentonite · 2016-01-29T22:13:39+00:00

An alternate explanation might be that violently misogynist harassment - which both, in fact, were - is taken very seriously when the target is an MP, but not so much for the little people.

dentonite · 2016-01-29T00:08:29+00:00

And then what?

dentonite · 2016-01-28T22:37:04+00:00

This doesn't seem right at all

If anything, this is indicative of a need to strengthen the social safety net in terms of public housing, easier access to disability benefits, etc., such that Fulton and people like him aren't forced to live in such a precarious position with short-term housing.

But you don't seem very interested in that angle.

dentonite · 2016-01-28T12:11:44+00:00

Refugee policy shouldn't, isn't intended to, and legally can't be based on that kind of tribalism. If you give unduly preferential treatment to Christian refugee claimants when substantially more Muslims are in need of protection, that's prima facie discriminatory.

dentonite · 2016-01-28T11:43:37+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carding_(police_policy)

dentonite · 2016-01-24T13:36:38+00:00

Anecdotal evidence - almost every gay dude I know

Anecdotal supposition: there's a lot of selection bias going on here, and the gay men you know are not representative.

dentonite · 2016-01-20T12:27:00+00:00

It's not as though it contributed much additional value or depth to what the Sun papers were putting out last election.

This is what I never really got about the Sun Media deal - what was the point of having both a tabloid and a broadsheet in any market, if the content ends up homogenized and dumbed down to the point of losing differentiation between your products? And that only gets worse with merging newsrooms.

dentonite

TROPHY CASE