Segacs’s World I Know

Well, I never thought I’d live to see the day when this would happen: The United Nations has unanimously declared an international Holocaust Day in commemoration of the Holocaust and as a stand against antisemitism and genocide:

The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday unanimously approved a proposal to set January 27 as the “International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.” The decision was made at the end of a special General Assembly session that began at UN headquarters in New York on Monday.

[ . . . ]

It also rejects any denial of the Holocaust, condemns discrimination and violence based on religion or ethnicity, and calls for the UN to establish an outreach program to encourage the public to engage in Holocaust remembrance activities.

The resolution, introduced Monday, was sponsored initially by Israel, the United States, Australia, Canada and Russia. Since the draft resolution was distributed for the first time in August, 91 UN member nations have added their names, including eight Muslim countries and several countries in Africa and South America.

Of course, we can’t expect an unconditional condemnation of atrocities against Jews from the United Nations:

Jordan’s UN Ambassador Prince Zeid al-Hussein called the Holocaust “a crime of the most colossal proportions” that was inflicted on European soil by Europeans against Europeans.

But he said it should not be used as a moral justification for the “continued domination of one people by another,” an obvious reference to Israel and the Palestinians.

That much is to be expected, but I find it amazing that so many Muslim countries actually passed the resolution in the first place.

So is this the UN’s “pound of flesh” that they can point to – an easy way to claim to be against antisemitism each time it condemns Israel for some pointless double-standard in the future? Or is the sentiment genuine?

Oh well… Whatever it is, it’s a step in the right direction.

Justice John Gomery released his first report today on the inquiry into the sponsorship scandal. Here is a link to the report in its entirety.

So now what?

We all pretty much knew what it was going to say. If anything, the report was soft on Martin, putting most of the blame on Chretien and allowing Martin to escape relatively unscathed (though with serious questions as to how competent a finance minister who knew nothing about his government’s finances is at running a country).

Martin repeated his pledge to call an election within 30 days of receiving the final report. The Bloc wants to bring down the government right now, though that may have more to do with fuelling separatist fire in Quebec than with the actual governing of Canada. Whether now or later, an election is almost certain to yield increased Bloc support, similar Tory and NDP votes, and another Liberal minority government. In other words, something pretty close to today’s status quo.

Because the fact remains that no matter how badly the Liberals screw up, no matter how much money they steal from the electorate, there is no alternative. Nobody east of Saskatchewan believes that Harper’s the man for the job… the NDP will remain (thankfully) on the fringe, and the Bloc is a Quebec-only party that can sweep here and still never govern.

Want to break the logjam? De-unite the right. The Liberals look central because the NDP attracts the fringe left. Form a fringe-right party to house all the kooks, and suddenly we might have an electable Conservative party… if they can get off their holy crusades about gay marriage long enough to take the pulse of the nation and actually come up with a reasonable platform.

Until then, the Gomery report will fuel voter frustration and will increase support in Quebec for sovereignty while tying the Federal Government’s hands in a future referendum campaign. But it won’t ultimately have much effect on who leads the nation. Paul Martin could break into all of our houses in person and cart off our furniture; he’d still get elected until such time as a viable alternative exists.

A school in Ariel – yes, a “settlement” – has a program to help Arab students get into college in Israel… and amazingly, it gets high praise from everyone except Israel’s left:

The one-year program, which is financed by a new grant from the Council for Higher Education, offers math, English, Hebrew, computer and learning skills classes. Students who do well in the pre-college program according to criteria established by the college will be able to enroll in B.A. programs without taking the psychometric exam that is required of all potential university students in Israel.

Following the government’s decision to initiate a process for granting the College of Judea and Samaria the status of a university earlier this year, the college came under harsh criticism from individuals and groups of left-wing Israeli academics and political activists, who protested against granting university status to an institution they considered to be located on “a settlement in occupied land.”

The students, however, feel differently:

Traveling home on Monday afternoon from the College of Judea and Samaria, nineteen-year-old Majdi Karaki explained why he decided to commute a total of four hours a day, four times a week, from his home in the Ras El-Amud neighborhood of east Jerusalem to Ariel, where he enrolled this week in a special pre-college program for Arab students.

“Sure, some of my friends criticized me for my choice of school,” Karaki told The Jerusalem Post. “They asked me why I was going to study in the same college with Jewish settlers, but I just don’t care about what they say.”

[ . . . ]

Like others among the 300 Arab students currently enrolled in the college itself, however, Karaki said that a good, government-subsidized education, rather than politics, were his personal consideration when he decided to enroll.

“A friend of mine studies here, and I think this is one of the best colleges in Israel,” Karaki said.

“Arab students that come to study here are fulfilling a dream,” said Rifat Sweidan, who received a Masters in social work from Bar-Ilan University and is now the College of Judea and Samaria’s academic advisor for Arab students.

[ . . . ]

Cohen-Orgad also said that the college did not require its Arab students to hold Israeli citizenship. “The college’s charter says that it welcomes anyone whose deed or behavior does not counter the principles of Israel’s declaration of independence,” Cohen-Orgad said.

“The past four years have been very difficult ones,” he added. “But they passed without tensions between Arabs and Jews, and with an Israeli flag in every class and every lab.” Indeed, according to Sweidan, no Arab students have complained “of feeling racism or prejudice.”

Nobody’s arguing that the situation for Israeli Arabs is great. All agree that prejudice – in schools, in the job market – exists. But, in this example at least, it seems that there are people trying to actually do something to improve the situation… and then there are people attacking them for it. And they’re not the people you might expect.

Let’s see if we can get a Quebec federalism thread going without mentioning Israel, the Palestinians, Zionism, or mideast politics in any way.

“It’s ten years later and still I haven’t a clue” – Collective Soul.

It’s ten years after the last referendum.

The PQ, energized by several years in opposition, is electing new leadership and is gearing up for a post-election victory referendum. We could be less than two years away from the next battle to save Canada.

Where the hell are all the federalists?

The sovereignty movement is ready. Student groups, unions, youth groups, political groups, artists and musicians and businesspeople and rabble-rousers and just about everyone else on the separatist side are organizing. They’re fundraising. They’re unifying. They’re strategizing. They’re recruiting volunteers and getting ready for the fight.

And on the federalist side? Well, we have Michaelle Jean, our new Governer-General, who seems 99% separatist anyway. Besides, nobody cares about her, unless they’re trying to use her to discredit the Canadian government.

The point is, there’s nobody left to fight. There are less Jean Charest fans in Quebec than there are Korn fans in a nursing home. The Federal government is weakened, devoid of any true leadership, and handcuffed thanks to the Sponsorship Scandal.

Grassroots organizations such as Alliance Quebec are so destroyed as to be nonexistent. Only a dozen people showed up to a federalist “rally” downtown last week to commemorate the massive 1995 unity rally that many say saved Canada at the eleventh hour.

I did a Google search looking for websites, citizens’ groups, hell, even a weekly Federalist poker game. Nothing. Nada. Zip. The few links I did find were woefully out of date and mostly defunct. Even the Quebec Liberal Party can’t be bothered to spend two words on federalism on its website (though they were sure to remind us to turn our clocks back this weekend).

And outside of Quebec? The situation is even bleaker. An alarmingly high percentage of Canadians have a “good riddance” sentiment toward Quebec. If they held another unity rally, would anyone come?

It seems incredible to think that only a couple of years ago, we thought Quebec had moved past sovereignty, that it was no longer a “big deal”, and that the threat of another referendum was as laughable as the threat of a hurricane coming to wipe out half of New Orleans. Well, we all know how that turned out.

See, the thing is, I’m not content to sit back and watch my country face the brink of destruction yet again. I value it too much. I happen to think that being Canadian is a pretty wonderful thing… and that keeping this country together is worth fighting for. And if I’m right, there are an awful lot of people out there who feel the same way.

We need initiatives. We need to get organized. We need ideas. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t exactly trust Charest, or whoever his successor will be, to take care of it all for us. I’m thinking it’s time for us ordinary Canadian federalists to get up and do something.

So, at risk of sounding like Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off… “Anyone? Anyone?”

If you’re a federalist and you’re proud of it, clap your hands. Better yet, post a comment here if you want to get involved. Post your ideas. And watch this site for news in the coming days.

It’s the SWIK No Campaign, to be launched right here, real soon. Keep it locked to this station.

Winter is definitely approaching. It’s been chilly and rainy most of the month. And it’s now getting dark super-early thanks to us having changed the clocks last night. But today was one of those perfect fall days that makes people want to go out and enjoy the sunshine. Here are a few shots from about town:

And tomorrow, Halloween. We all know what that means: Chocolate goes on sale on Tuesday!

Iran’s president once again called for Israel’s destruction… only this time, he chose language sure to earn him loads of support among western nations:

“The only logical solution to solve the Palestinian issue is to hold free elections with the participation of Palestinians inside and outside the occupied territories and a recognition of the nation’s legitimacy,” he said after a meeting with Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

When Iran uses the term “occupied territories” it usually means not only the West Bank and Gaza but the whole of Israel, whose right to exist Iran does not recognize.

Ahmadinejad appeared to be calling for full democratic representation for Palestinian refugees and migrs anywhere.

This is just another variation of the “one-state solution” that people seeking Israel’s destruction call for. Their idea is to turn the Jews into a minority among voters, thus ensuring that a Palestinian government is elected in Israel that will create an Islamic state in the place of Israel and relegate the Jews to second-class citizenship.

But of course, “democracy for all” sounds so much more palatable. And this will surely give the EU, Russia, and other countries the “out” they’re looking for to avoid pressing for action against Iran.

Same sentiment, different words. But watch the reaction.

What can be said about this?

Three powerful bombs tore through New Delhi markets packed with families and shoppers on Saturday ahead of the biggest Hindu and Muslim festivals of the year, killing more than 50 people and wounding scores.

Charred bodies, blood, glass and smoking debris littered the blast scenes as rescuers frantically pulled out the dead and wounded while thousands of shocked survivors milled around trying to find out what had happened to missing relatives.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared the coordinated blasts, set off within minutes of each other, an act of terrorism. He said it was too early to speculate who was to blame.

I’m not sure what’s worse – the attacks themselves, or the likelihood that they’ll get quickly shrugged off as merely the latest in a long list of terrorist attacks. There’s very little that can shock the world anymore, sadly.

Paul’s back. And blogging up a storm. Get thee over to his place, quick.

Update: Paul also wins my prize for quote of the day, with this insightful analysis about the Tremblay-versus-Bourque municipal election race:

Do any of you remember that episode of South Park where they’re selecting a new school mascot and are reduced to choosing either a giant douche or a turd sandwich? Life really does imitate art sometimes…

We missed ya, Paul! Sure good to have you back.