Segacs’s World I Know

While surfing, I stumbled upon this great index of Jean Chretien quotes that expose just how bumbling and brain-dead he actually is. The index includes such gems as:

Mr. Chrétien discusses the sensitive issue of control of Jerusalem. “I don’t know if I am in West, South, North or East Jerusalem right now.”

It is missing some very choice ones, however, including this one:

” A proof is a proof. What kind of proof ? It’s a proof. A proof is proof. And when you have a good proof, it’s because it is proven.” Quoted Page A-15, The Winnipeg Free Press, Sept. 21, reference to the possibility of Saddam Hussein’s production of weapons of mass destruction

Or, of course, the famous “moron” debacle, in which Chretien’s communications director called George W. Bush a “moron” and Chretien responded by saying that Bush is a friend of his and “not a moron after all”. Aw gee, thanks, that was heartfelt.

It may be childish to make fun of Chretien’s brand of incomprehensible non-French non-English. But when you contrast him with the sheer eloquence of other national leaders, it seems a bit incredulous that people kept on voting for this guy. His retirement simply cannot come soon enough.

This would be funny if it wasn’t so stupid. Palestinian protesters are urging the Canadian government not to deport Palestinian refugee claimants on the grounds that they face persecution back in Israel:

“Those who are victims of repression in refugee camps have the right to humane treatment when they come to Canada,” said Amir Khadir, a prominent social activist and an unsuccessful candidate for the left-wing Union des forces progressistes in last April’s provincial election.

Refugee claimants who come to Canada from Palestinian camps ought to be given asylum here, the coalition said.

Opponents of the deportations say the refugees would be sent back to what they contend is Israel’s “illegal and deadly” military occupation.

It of course fits the propaganda of these groups to claim that Israeli rule is so oppressive that Canada should grant refugee status to people facing deportation there. And of course it’s a ridiculously backward argument. Israel is a modern democracy with a justice system guaranteeing rights and protections to all, defending itself against terrorism trying to suck out its lifeblood.

The irony is that the people facing deportion are more likely to be dangerous to Israeli society than the other way around. And Canada, officially one of Israel’s allies, has been so morally blind lately, I wouldn’t be surprised if the government bought the argument. But then, Ernst Zundel claimed refugee status here too.

A cover story in last Wednesday’s Washington Post addressed antisemitism in France:

“At first, neither the politicians, nor the courts, nor the intellectuals, nor the media, nor public opinion, nor civil society — none of them said anything,” said Simon Kouhama, president of the Jewish Citizens Forum, an organization founded largely by Sephardic Jews. “We began to ask if we could even stay in France. Were we really French citizens? Were we Jews? We had the feeling we were a people apart.”

Worth a read.

Home sweet home. Had a great two weeks in Greece – although getting sick with a cold on vacation is not my idea of fun. (And to anyone contemplating flying while sick, here’s a word of advice: don’t.) Other than that I had an amazing time.

Having spent the last two weeks disconnected from TV, newspapers, internet, and anything not written in Greek (which I don’t speak), I know there’s probably a lot that’s been happening in the world, but right now I’m pretty out of it. My brain stubbornly insists I’m not really home but still having drinks in Mykonos, partying in Ios, or lying on the black-sand beach in Santorini. I expect to be caught up by Monday. In the meantime, back to my vacation.

I’ll be on vacation for the next couple of weeks. Blogging will resume upon my return. Have a good one, everyone!

And in yet another suicide attack, 16 people are dead after a suicide bombing at a Moscow rock concert:

Two women suicide bombers killed 16 other people when they blew themselves apart at an open-air rock festival staged at a Moscow airfield on Saturday, Russia’s interior minister said.

Boris Gryzlov blamed Chechens opposed to President Vladimir Putin’s plan, announced a day earlier, to hold a Kremlin-run local presidential election in Chechnya in October.

The minister told reporters at the scene that 20 people were injured.

If it was carried out by Chechens, the suicide attack would be a new instance of a tactic used by the region’s Muslim militants, including several women, only relatively recently in their decade-old campaign to break from Moscow’s control.

Israel has long been warning the world that if the terror tactics being used against it are allowed to be successful there, they will be exported around the globe. The warning went unheeded. And now suicide bombings are virtually everywhere, and people are starting to notice but it’s too late.

44 people are dead after a suicide attack on a mosque in Pakistan:

A suicide attack on a packed Shi’ite mosque in southwestern Pakistan during Friday prayers killed at least 44 people and wounded 65 others, the country’s leading private emergency service said.

Describing what was the worst such attack in Pakistan in recent years, witnesses at the main Shi’ite mosque in the center of the city of Quetta reported seeing gunmen firing on worshippers before at least one suicide bomber blew himself up.

[ . . . ]

No group claimed responsibility for the raid, but officials said it appeared to be linked to rivalry between minority Shi’ites and majority Sunni Muslims, which has often exploded into violence in the past.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said it was too early to say who was to blame.

Which Jewish imperialism will be blamed for this terror attack?

More stupid ideas coming from the city of Montreal, whose councilors seem to have nothing better to do. The city has floated a plan to get rid of all the surface parking lots downtown by developing them into housing units, high-rises, or multi-level parking lots, or turning them into green space:

City council wants to eliminate all 240 surface parking lots, potentially reducing the number of spots available, in a push to beautify Montreal and encourage commuters to use public transit.

It has commissioned a study to determine the availability of parking spots and the need for parking downtown, said Robert Libman, the city’s executive committee member in charge of land use.

“We’re not talking about eliminating parking spots, we’re taking about eliminating the outdoor parking lots,” he said yesterday at city hall.

“They’re ugly, they’re messy, people throw their garbage there, you have these run-down shacks sitting in the middle of them, and they have great development potential.”

Fine. They’re ugly. But they provide the majority of the parking spots downtown. Thousands of people park there daily, and it certainly won’t improve commerce, industry, or pollution if they have nowhere to park.

And “encourage people to use public transit” would seem like more of a sincere goal if public transit was a viable alternative. But, as anyone living in the suburbs will tell you, it’s far from. There’s no metro out where I live, and buses are infrequent and inconvenient.

For example, heading downtown on a Saturday night in the summer would take 25 minutes to drive each way. According to the STM website’s “Tous Azimuts” tool, it would take 1 3/4 hours to make the same trip down, and require taking two buses and the metro. I couldn’t calculate the route to come back home at closing time, because the search tool only works between 6am and 10pm. But from experience I can say it takes well over 2 hours. And that’s straight home – imagine having to pick someone up or meet up elsewhere first!

Another example: when I was a university student, coming home from downtown in the middle of the afternoon after a class would take me 25 minutes by car. Tous Azimuts tells me it would take 1 1/2 hours, with a route involving two metro lines and a rush-hour bus. Attempting the same route outside of rush hour would tack on an extra 45 minutes.

Going shopping downtown on a Sunday afternoon? Forget it! By the time I got there, it would be time to turn around and come home.

To be sure, I have at times driven halfway into the city and left my car at one of the STM public lots to take the metro from there. But it is an additional 10 minutes from that point to get to virtually anywhere downtown. And leaving my car to take the metro means that not only am I paying for both public and automotive transport, but that it will take three times as long.

Some major cities have managed to implement prohibitive driving measures aimed to prevent people from taking their cars downtown. London, for example, recently added the “congestion charge” that keeps cars out of the downtown core at peak hours, or forces owners to pay a stiff charge. However, London has a world-class public transit system. The Underground, while expensive and often on strike or in repair, does go virtually everywhere in all directions. And there’s a fairly extensive night-bus system after hours. Or New York City, which has a natural deterrent to driving, namely the traffic, has created a culture of dedicated walkers and subway-goers, and the subway is convenient for most commuters.

None of this is true in Montreal, where the metro goes to only one stop on the South Shore, nowhere in Laval, and nowhere West of Cote-Vertu. Not only that, but lines are infrequent, stoppages constant, and the idea was even floated of stopping service on weekends. The commuter trains – a good idea in theory – are even worse, as there are virtually no trains outside rush hour, and the lines are only useful to people going straight downtown.

Montreal is going about this backwards. If you want less people to drive, give them a viable alternative. Increasing gas taxes and parking fees, removing parking spots, and other “stick” methods don’t work without the “carrot” of improved public transit. Until the government makes a real commitment to improving public transit, we’ll keep on driving. And eliminating parking lots won’t improve the situation, it’ll only make things worse.

Happy Independence Day to our neighbours to the south!

For those Gazette subscribers, Gil Troy has an excellent opinion piece in today’s paper saluting the values of American democracy and liberty that were enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. Unfortunately it didn’t make it to the online edition. But I’ll echo his sentiments in saying that there is no such thing as a perfect society, but the genius of the American system is that it recognized flaws and imperfections and created mechanisms for progress and change.

To all you Americans reading this, hope you’re enjoying your holiday, and careful with those firecrackers.