That’s how much extra the Montreal Jewish Community has to raise this year to pay for extra security at local Jewish schools and campuses:
Sylvain Abitbol, president of Montreal’s Federation of Jewish Community Services, said the arson attack [at U.T.T.], “combined with the defacing of many of our cemeteries and the rise in anti-Semitism in the world, led us to decide to raise the security level at our schools.”
Security agents will patrol the community’s 22 schools and 40 campuses at a cost of three million dollars (2.3 million US). The Jewish community is raising money to pay for the extra security.
“I worry for Montreal, but it is obvious that there are worries at the national level and my colleagues in other cities are asking themselves the same questions,” Abitbol said. “They all are considering the same type of measures.”
Will the money be raised? Of course – and then some. It’s going to be the theme of this year’s annual Federation CJA campaign, and the community is sure to be generous.
But just because they will succeed in raising the money doesn’t make it right. That $3 million should be spent on pressing community needs, such as helping the poor, seniors, social programs, advocacy, and Israel support. Not on security guards to make sure that nobody tries again to blow up our elementary schools.
I find it sad that the community needs to foot the bill. I find it even sadder that schools need security guards in the first place. This isn’t the Canada I know and love.
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Finally, a medal in a real sport: silver in rowing. We missed gold by 8/100 of a second.
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So the good news is, Canada finally won another medal in Athens – a silver, this time.
The bad news is, it’s in trampoline.
Trampoline??? That’s an Olmypic event??? Okay this confirms it: there are way too many sports in the Olympics.
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Well we didn’t have to wait long to see what our new foreign minister’s attitude towards Israel was going to be:
Canada rebuked Israel over a plan to build 1,000 new homes in existing settlements in the West Bank, saying the move hindered hopes for peace with the Palestinians.
Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew suggested that the swelling settlements were a contravention of the internationally-backed roadmap peace plan.
“Canada is very concerned by Israel’s decision,” Pettigrew said in a statement.
“It contravenes international law and goes against the Quartet’s Road Map for peace in the Middle East, agreed to by the parties, which requires the freezing of all settlement activity.”
“Final status issues such as land and borders can only be resolved through a negotiated agreement between the parties.
“The deliberate expansion of settlements in the occupied territories hinders the prospect for achieving a peaceful resolution to the conflict.”
Right. As though the Road Map were still on the radar screen. As though the Palestinians fulfilled even a single obligation of theirs spelled out by the Road Map. As though the “hopes for peace” were still alive and well.
Canada’s official foreign policy: denial of reality.
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We Canadians may be depressed about only winning one bronze so far. But Israel, on the other hand, is ecstatic about its bronze medal in judo, won by Arik Ze’evi. The medal is Israel’s first in Athens and fifth in the country’s entire Olympic history. All the more so because the medal was won in the sport of judo, in which the gutless Iranians refused to face Israel.
Way to go!
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The Globe and Mail is reporting that a study claims that less people in Canada are getting welfare cheques… but by the wording of the article, they seem to be implying that this is a bad thing:
The number of Canadians receiving social assistance cheques fell sharply in the second half of the 1990s, a new study says, blaming reforms to the welfare system that made many more people ineligible for the money.
Blaming?
That one word pretty much says everything you need to know about the good ol’ Canadian attitude about being a welfare state. I mean, it would be tyrannical of us to expect people to quit abusing the system and actually get jobs!
One element of this study, at least, was no surprise:
For poor people in Quebec and in Newfoundland and Labrador, the welfare rate rose sharply in 1993, then remained high through to 2000. The rate in those provinces surpassed that of all other provinces by 2000.
In 2000, Quebec had the highest overall welfare rate of 21 per cent, but Newfoundland and Labrador had the highest welfare rate for couples with children.
In other words, more than one in 5 people in Quebec sit around and live off handouts. And while I can accept that some of them legitimately need it, there’s no way that 21% of the Quebec population is utterly incapable of doing anything useful to make a living.
But why work when you can get paid to sit at home and drink beer, right? It’s the Canadian way!
Update: Justaguy pointed out that, according to Statistics Canada, that figure is actually 21% of “unattached” people in Quebec on welfare. I still think that’s pretty sad.
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Do you suppose we could call him a guzzly bear? (Hat tip: Mark).
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Reuters reports that the U.N. is concerned about “lack of progress” in Darfur:
The United Nations says it is concerned by Sudan’s lack of progress in bringing security to Darfur, where more than a million people have fled their homes for fear of militia attack.
Sudan has less than two weeks to prove to the U.N. Security Council it has made progress towards disarming marauding Arab militias known as Janjaweed, or face possible sanctions.
Let’s review, shall we?
Was the U.N. “concerned” about the years of fighting? Was the U.N. “concerned” about the ethnic cleansing and genocide (a word that they still refuse to say) that has so far cost 40,000 people their lives and sent a million more fleeing for theirs? Where has the “concern” been all these months while the Sudanese government backed and armed the janjaweed, who have been brutally killing, raping, and torturing tens of thousands?
But hey, it’s happening in Africa and it’s so far away, so who really cares anyway right? And what do we know about Sudan, or about Chad, besides that there’s a lot of people there starving and dying? And besides, it wouldn’t be politically-correct to say that what’s actually happening is Muslims killing black Africans. Especially because there’s no way to blame George W. Bush, and there’s no way to blame Israel.
Go read this horror story. Now imagine a million or two more like it. Then try to tell me that we should be relying on the U.N. to ensure international security.
The U.N. fucked up royally in Darfur, just like they fucked up royally in Kosovo, in Rwanda, in the DRC… in virtually anywhere else there’s been a conflict. And, as usual, it is the innocent who pay the price.
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We Canadians don’t exactly have an abundance of medal-contenders at these games. Which makes this all the more painful:
[Dave] Calder, a native of Victoria, and Chris Jarvis of St. Catharines, Ont., were disqualified from the men’s pairs Olympic rowing semifinal Wednesday for leaving their lane just before the finish line.
The story seems a bit fishy, though, because the Canadian team will be allowed to compete in the B-finals:
Jarvis, 23, said the decision was “not a sensible outcome.”
“First, we displayed medal potential the entire race,” he said. “If FISA is willing to change the ruling to allow us to race, why not allow us to race in the final that we have qualified for?
Why indeed?
The South African team claimed that the Canadians interfered with their oar, but the Canadians insist there was no contact. In any case, this is a really tough break for the Canadian team, which was certainly in medal contention until this time. All that training, all those years of hard work… all to end in a tough break. Ouch.
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