It's either Sensenbrenner or Mr.Mustard in the Library

Days after an internal probe by the Clerk of the Privy Council Office Kevin Lynch failed to determine the source of the Naftagate leak, James Travers at The Star reported that "Multiple sources say the Canadian note questioning the Democrat frontrunner's public promise to reopen NAFTA was leaked from the Prime Minister's Office" to Frank Sensenbrenner, a Republican who worked at the Canadian embassy in Washington.

Now Sensenbrenner's father, James, introduced the notorious U.S. Patriot Act as chair of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, but just how did his son Frank appear in our midst?

"[Frank] Sensenbrenner was introduced to senior embassy officials by Gerry Chipeur, a Calgary-based lawyer who was once legal counsel to the Reform and Canadian Alliance parties, the antecedents of today's Conservative party.

Chipeur, a dual citizen who headed the Republicans Abroad Canada, also has deep ties to the evangelical community in both countries and prominent U.S. Republicans, including Kansas Senator Sam Brownback.

The entrée of Sensenbrenner into Canadian diplomatic circles was forged at the Republican National Convention in New York in 2004, where members of the Canadian embassy and Conservative officials such as Day, Chipeur, Alberta MP Jason Kenney and John Reynolds, co-chair of the Tory 2006 election campaign, all attended.

Sensenbrenner had cut his political teeth in Canada, attending private college in the Toronto area and attending early Reform party conventions where he first befriended those in then-leader Preston Manning's inner circle.

The push to get him on the payroll came particularly from Day, sources said, when he took over the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative file, the name given to the Republican move to require all Canadians crossing the U.S. land border to carry passports or secure driver's licences."
~ Tim Harper at The Star

I had no idea Day, Kenney, and Reynolds attended the U.S. Republican National Convention but I can't say I'm surprised. This old boys network is already so 'deeply integrated' they can't imagine what's taking the rest of Canada so long to catch up.

Frank Sensenbrenner has since denied having a role in the leak of the Canadian consular memo.
So due to that internal Privy Council Office probe which protects the Cons from having to answer any difficult questions, we're back to Mr. Mustard in the Library again.

Everything was going just swimmingly until...

Non-violence best answer, Dalai Lama says

"Avoiding violence in places like Afghanistan and Iraq is the best way to counter the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Dalai Lama said before meeting the prime minister in Ottawa on Monday.
Speaking on the second day of his visit to Canada, the spiritual leader of Tibet said he would tell Stephen Harper, if the subject were to come up, that “using violence to counter violence” can exacerbate problems.

“I always believe non-violence is the best way to solve problems,” he said in response to reporters' questions about Canada's role in Afghanistan.

A clearly uncomfortable Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney stood close by, trying to interrupt without success and tugging at the holy man's elbow."

Tugging at the holy man's elbow? That's really classy, Jason.
Regular readers will recall Jason came this close to winning the coverted Certificate of Hitlertude just this past February.

The Amero....again.

Globe&Mail :
"Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge says North America could one day embrace a euro-style single currency. (snip)
The idea of a common currency has long been a subject of curiosity, particularly among Canadian academics, who see it as a way to escape sharp gyrations in the exchange rate.(snip)
Some proponents have dubbed the single North American currency the “amero.”
It is more likely, however, that a common currency would mean that Canada and Mexico would adopt the U.S. dollar, giving up significant economic control to a central bank dominated by the United States."

In 1999, former Alliance MP Herb Grubal wrote a paper for the Fraser Institute entitled The Case For the Amero : The Economics and Politics of a North American Monetary Union.

In it he describes how in March of 1999, Reform Party members Rob Anders, Rahim Jaffer and Jason Kenney
"spearheaded a debate in parliament over the issue of monetary union for North America. In the process, they asked the Prime Minister to form a committee of parliament to study the subject."

Well, so much for "being a subject of curiosity, particularly among academics".
Interesting how far back the public record on this idea goes among the gnugovs, although they do say they were expecting "some resistance".

In endnote #39 to The Case For the Amero, Grubal notes : "Resistance to the amero will be lessened by continuing to call it officially a "dollar" in the United States and Canada."

Oh come on now, Reformers, you know you really want to call it the "The Almighty Dollar" - after, you know, "Him".
However, given the current US trade deficit with China, a very good reason among many other very good reasons for Canada not to consider this idea at all, they might have to settle for the "Almighty Yen".

https://web.archive.org/web/20170104053114/http://oldfraser.lexi.net/publications/critical_issues/1999/amero/amero.pdf

(crossposted at The Galloping Beaver)

Hitlertude in the House!

In response to Elizabeth May comparing Con environment policy to Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of the Nazis, Harper told the House about : :

" a copy of a letter I received from Ed Morgan, the national president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, noting that[ ] Elizabeth May has diminished the Holocaust, used the Nazi analogy that is demagogic and inappropriate, while belittling Canadians of faith.

I think the Leader of the Opposition should be able to say that he believes that diminishing the Holocaust and using Nazi analogies are inappropriate."

Why, it seems like only yesterday that Jason Kenney addressed Congregation Beth Israel Beth Aaron, accusing "genocidal" Iran of seeking "a final solution, in a perverted twist on history, that would complete the work Hitler began."

Defending Kenney, Stockwell Day explained that comparing Hezbollah to the Nazis — as his caucus colleague Jason Kenney did this month (Sept 2006) — was a "straight historic analogy."

So there ya go. Analogies invoking Chamberlain are "demogogic, inappropriate, and belittle the Holocaust and Canadians of faith", but if you go straight for the Hitler, you've got yourself a "historic analogy".

Hansard link via Steve at Far and Wide, who lays into the disingenuous poo flinging that is Question Period.

"Pithy sound bites"

Tories off to pre-election 'boot camp'
Candidates to be drilled: Possible revival of the Big Blue Machine?

"Hundreds of federal Conservative candidates and campaign workers will converge on a Toronto convention centre this week for a political "boot camp" designed to prepare them for the next election.
Over three days of activities starting on Friday at the Toronto Congress Centre, candidates will be drilled in everything from the basics of door-to-door canvassing to the art of delivering the pithy sound bite."

Some "pithy sound bites" from previous ConservAllianceReform campaigns that very probably won't be making the cut this time round :

"In the 1950s, buggery was a criminal offence. Now it's a requirement to receive benefits from the federal government." ~ Garry Breitkreuz

"Old age security is welfare for the aged." ~ Paul Forseth

"The Canadian Alliance simply couldn't support the tone and overall direction of a Report that failed to recognize the tremendous gains that manufacturers and user groups of pesticides have been making for years to make human health and safety their top priority." ~ Rahim Jaffir

"I do support the idea of private health care."~ Jason Kenney

"I think that all the Indians should all be sent to Labrador, to all live together in peace and leave us in peace." ~ Ricardo Lopez

"My riding has the largest Iranian population in the country. At least 40% of all the Iranians living there are refugee claimants. Most of them are bogus." ~ Ted White

"Hostility in Canada to Christian teachings about the sanctity of the family and life has resulted in persecution here at home... The government has launched a campaign of intimidation to silence churches by dispatching tax collectors to threaten the charitable tax status of denominations who speak out against the Liberal government." ~ Cheryl Gallant

"The fact is that homosexuals aren’t barred from marrying under Canadian law... Marriage is open to everybody as long as they’re a man and a woman." ~ Jason Kenney

"It's past time the feds scrapped the Canada Health Act." ~ Stephen Harper

"Canada appears content to become a second-tier socialistic country, boasting ever more loudly about its economy and social services to mask its second-rate status." ~ Stephen Harper

"[Y]our country [the USA], and particularly your conservative movement, is a light and an inspiration to people in this country{Canada] and across the world." ~ Stephen Harper

Lots more at In Their Own Words though, in case they run out.

Jason Kenney, Minister of Hitlerology

Minister of Multiculturalism Jason Kenney has failed in his second bid to win the coveted Certificate of Hitlertude this week.

Despite a valiant effort before the Congregation Beth Israel Beth Aaron in which he freely invoked Hitler, genocide, the final solution, and eliminating Israel, Mr Kenney even called Iranian President Ahmadinejad "a threat to world peace and security" but was still unable to link him with Hitler.

However, in asserting that Ahmadinejad is "hell-bent" upon “a final solution, in a perverted twist on history, that would complete the work Hitler began ”, Mr Kenney became eligible to receive this nice tub of BushLite lardass spin.

Try not to eat it all at once this time.

H/T : Buckdog for the link to CJNews

This week in Hitlertude

Suddenly everybody's posting pictures of cats that look like Charlie Chaplin.

From The Star - Suddenly everybody's a Nazi :

"Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said that comparing Hezbollah to the Nazis — as his caucus colleague Jason Kenney did this month — was a "straight historic analogy."
Thus, an Islamic denomination distinguished by its adherents' minority position on the acceptable principle of caliphic succession 1,400 years ago is equated with a 20th-century anti-communist totalitarian movement with its roots in European social Darwinism, pseudo-scientific race theories, and the long, ugly, and peculiarly Christian tradition of anti-Semitism.
As Mr. Day insisted, "The historic comparison is clear." "

Heh.

In other Hitler news, the pope's chief exorcist has called Harry Potter the devil and compared a Potter character to Stalin and Hitler, saying they were possessed by the devil :

"You can tell by their behavior and their actions, from the horrors they committed and the atrocities that were committed on their orders. That's why we need to defend society from demons," said Amorth, who has performed 3000 exorcisms on behalf of a Sky Monster and is evidently completely lacking in any sense of irony.

UPDATE : Coming soon - Cats that look like Lenin.

This week in terrorism

What on earth did we used to talk about before?
Cerberus has the links.

But after all the finger-pointing, and blaming, and spineless acceptance of resignations, and before the outing of Jason Kenney and Stockwell Day's own tangential connections to terrorist groups disappears down the memory hole forever, I did want to make just this one observation.

Harper and his press secretary Jason Kenney compared Hezbollah to Nazis.
Mr. Kenney : ''The world was wrong to negotiate with that party then and it would be wrong to negotiate with Hezbollah today .."

Really? Presumably this is part of that annoying "appeasement" meme so popular with Tories lately.

Pay attention, Jason.
You could have read the following in any high school history text, but evidently you didn't.

In 1941, prior to the establishment of the State of Israel, the future Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Shamir, approached the Nazis to negotiate the establishment of a Jewish state in return for taking an active part in the war against the British on Germany's side. They turned him down. Shamir wanted the British out of Palestine, and as a leader of Lehi, a group which openly declared itself to be terrorist, Shamir was responsible for the 1944 assassination of Britain's minister of state for the Middle East, the 1948 assassination of the UN representative in the Middle East, and an assassination attempt against the British High Commissioner of Palestine.

Forty years later Shamir was Prime Minister of Israel, with a second term as PM from 1986 to 1992.
Presumably he spent at least some of that time making up his own list of who was a terrorist and who it would be wrong to negotiate with.

You see, Jason, some terrorists go on to lead really successful lives as the prime ministers of countries we are currently siding with against whoever the hell are deemed to be the terrorists now.