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Blog of Adam Daifallah -- author, journalist, law student. Lover of politics, writing, golf, curling, fitness, fashion, bacon and maple products -- not necessarily (but probably) in that order. Partisan of the Anglosphere. Contact me via email at adam@daifallah.com. This summer I am joined by Keir Wilmut and Omar Soliman.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Harper the incrementalist
Interesting reaction to the news yesterday of the Tory plan for fixed Senate terms of 8 years. Quite a few people are saying it is not enough, while others are sanctimoniously claiming this is the only reform possible within the constitutional paramaters. Maybe so. But I think the longer-term goal of fundamental reform of the Senate -- including elections -- remains. This is a tiny step, but it is a step nonetheless. Stephen Harper is demonstrating a steely determination to change the country slowly, as I think he figures it is the only way he is going to do it. And he's probably right.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 7:36 AM
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Joe Volpe: stooge of Big Pharma
When Joe Volpe, one of the most universally unliked politicians I have ever seen (by Liberals themselves) announced his candidacy for the federal leadership, I assumed he would be the "immigrant" candidate, cashing in on his ethnic contacts from his time as Immigration minister and courting these groups with promises of more multi-culti goodies, favours, perks and opening the immigration floodgates as wide as can be. He probably is doing that -- with gobs of money from pharmaceutical giant Apotex.
I look forward to the cries of outrage from liberals and Liberals across the spectrum about this blatant corporate buyout of a credible leadership candidate.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:44 AM
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Black in fighting form
In today's National Post, Conrad Black has a review of the new Trudeau biography recently released by Max and Monique Nemni. But at the end, there is a short aside that serves as a delicious response to Jan Wong's ridiculous marking last week of the "one-year anniversary" of his removal of some boxes from his old office:
A week ago, Jan Wong in The Globe and Mail observed the first anniversary of the removal of some boxes from the building where I then worked. There was nothing criminal about this, as will be demonstrated judicially in due course. Jan Wong's story contained a number of outright falsehoods. The last time she focused on me, she claimed to have thrown a wallet over the fence in front of my house and complained that it had not been returned. (It wasn't found). I'm grateful to readers for their informative e-mail correspondence. Could one of them tell me why Jan Wong, an ex-Maoist Red Guard whom I have never met, is flapping around me like a deranged Peking duck?
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 5:48 PM
Friday, May 26, 2006
Galloway
Does this even deserve comment?
The Respect MP George Galloway has said it would be morally justified for a suicide bomber to murder Tony Blair. In an interview with GQ magazine, the reporter asked him: "Would the assassination of, say, Tony Blair by a suicide bomber - if there were no other casualties - be justified as revenge for the war on Iraq?" Mr Galloway replied: "Yes, it would be morally justified. I am not calling for it - but if it happened it would be of a wholly different moral order to the events of 7/7. It would be entirely logical and explicable. And morally equivalent to ordering the deaths of thousands of innocent people in Iraq - as Blair did."
And there's even more today from the "Respect MP".
He has since put out a statement about the interview, which appears to not really be a withdrawal or even an apology. A clarification maybe? Who knows.
(Via Neale)
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:20 AM
Thursday, May 25, 2006
The insightful Canadian commentariat strikes again
In Globe and Mail comment page excitement this morning, Lawrence Martin endorses Al Gore for president in 2008 and says conservatism in America is "under siege." (A more, uh, truthful analysis would be that the Republican Party is "under siege" for completely abandoning conservatism, but that doesn't seem to fit the Gore comeback narrative.)
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 8:54 AM
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
More hate from the Saudis
It's becoming an annual ritual: Freedom House, that wonderful organization founded by Eleanor Roosevelt, Wendell Willkie and others to promote freedom around the world, puts out a report detailing how Saudi Arabia is still spreading hate and propaganda against non-Muslims and the west. This year, they've documented the hatred contained in official government documents. A sampling for those who care:
• Various Saudi government publications gathered for this study, most of which are in Arabic, assert that it is a religious obligation for Muslims to hate Christians and Jews and warn against imitating, befriending, or helping them in any way, or taking part in their festivities and celebrations; • The documents promote contempt for the United States because it is ruled by legislated civil law rather than by totalitarian Wahhabi-style Islamic law. They condemn democracy as un-Islamic; • For a Muslim who fails to uphold the Saudi Wahhabi sect’s sexual mores (i.e. through homosexual activity or heterosexual activity outside of marriage), the edicts published by the Saudi government’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs, and found in American mosques advise, “it would be lawful for Muslims to spill his blood and to take his money;” • Regarding those who convert out of Islam, the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs explicitly asserts, they “should be killed;” • Saudi textbooks and other publications in the collection, propagate a Nazi-like hatred for Jews, treat the forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion as historical fact, and avow that the Muslim’s duty is to eliminate the state of Israel; • Regarding women, the Saudi publications instruct that they should be veiled, segregated from men and barred from certain employment and roles;
And it goes on. Despite the millions of dollars these guys have poured into PR and spin, looks like nothing is changing.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 3:35 PM
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Harper's stock continues to rise
The latest poll has the Harper Conservatives at 43% nationally, easily in range of a majority government. Polls are not looked upon kindly at this blog, but there is clearly a trend developing here, and it's pretty much all good news for the Tories. Also worth reading, especially in light of this poll, is an important op-ed today in The Globe and Mail by Tom Flanagan (apparently not yet up online) about Harper's strategy, developed years ago, of creating a new natural governing party.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:41 AM
Taber update
Thanks to all who drew attention to this issue. Obviously there are some quite strong opinions out there about Jane Taber. A number of comments on the below post were not approved due to vulgar language and/or senseless, malicious personal attacks. It is fine to criticize a public person -- even harshly -- but it is unacceptable to gratuitously insult him or her for absolutely no reason and with no justification.
If anyone wants to see the highlight reel from Taber's angry performance on last Sunday's Question Period, the Blogging Tories website has one up. Go to the right side of the screen, click on Blogging Tories Television and then pull up "The O'Taber Factor" on the drop-down menu.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:14 AM
Monday, May 22, 2006
Tommy Douglas and the "subnormal family"
Someone call George Strombolopoulos -- he will definitely want to check out his hero's thesis:
Douglas proposed, as the first and foremost solution to the subnormal family, segregation, and sterilization. These two ‘remedies’ are the most callous and inhumane of his proposals, yet they are deemed primary. Furthermore, his characterization of the subnormal is more akin to one describing animals than human beings. One could argue that ignorance and lack of experience would compel one to hold such a callous view, but we must keep in mind, that Douglas worked extensively with the poor in the United States prior to the writing of the thesis. He knew the poor intimately, he knew their loves, hates, downfalls, and strengths. And, like any compassionate person who works with any disadvantaged group, Douglas should have been moved to empathy. Yet, there is no evidence of this.
It is possible to revoke the CBC's Greatest Canadian award?
Great work by Celestial Junk.
(Via Kate McMillan.)
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:14 AM
Sunday, May 21, 2006
What's up with Jane Taber?
I have been meaning to touch on this for a few days now: Jane Taber's work lately has been beyond the pale. Her dislike for the Tories was always fairly evident, but for some reason it went into overdrive last week. I don't know whether it's that she's overworked from her double duty as a Globe scribe and a CTV talking head or that the Harper press shop is treating her badly, but what she is doing is not right.
My antennae first went up when I saw this story, which appeared on page A4 (!!!) of the Thursday Globe and Mail. After reading it, for the first time in my life I seriously contemplated filing a complaint with the Ontario Press Council. It is not just the content of this total non-news "story" that is farcical, it is the sarcastic tone.
It gets worse on TV. I mean, who opens up an interview with the question "Are you a bigot?" The answer: Jane Taber, today, when interviewing Gwyn Morgan on Question Period. It's like that old joke about asking a politician "When did you stop beating your wife?" But the difference is that the wife beating joke is a joke, and Taber was dead serious! At least Morgan had the decency to laugh it off.
Also on today's Question Period, Taber interviewed Rona Ambrose. This time, Taber looked as though she wanted to lunge into the camera and grab the environment minister by the throat. Seriously. Watch it from start to finish.
Then there was this panel on Friday's Mike Duffy's show, in which she proudly called the Prime Minister "petulant." (Lawrence Martin used the same word and several more, including "arrogance," but this is expected behaviour from him.)
Maybe she just had a bad week. Maybe she just needs a holiday. But it seems that Taber, like Keith Boag, is letting her personal frustration with the new way of doing things in Ottawa affect her reporting of the news. And that's wrong.
(A bit of a tangent but somewhat related: It has become patently unclear just exactly what Taber's primary job is in Ottawa. Is she a pundit? Is she a commentator with opinions? Or is she a straight-news reporter? You can no longer tell from her written stories or TV work.)
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 6:40 PM
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Remember Richard Hatch?
Boy, talk about a fall from grace:
Survivor winner Richard Hatch has been sentenced to more than four years in prison for tax evasion on his reality TV show winnings and other earnings.
Richard Hatch, who won $1 million US on the first edition of 'Survivor' in 2000, received a harsher than expected sentence because he repeatedly lied during the trial, according to the judge. (CP)
U.S. District Judge Ernest Torres, at a court in Providence, R.I., on Tuesday sentenced Hatch to 51 months in prison.
"I believe I've been completely truthful and completely forthcoming throughout the entire process," Hatch, 45, told the judge before he was sentenced.
However, Torres responded by issuing a harsher than expected sentence because he said Hatch had repeatedly committed perjury during the trial.
"It seems unfortunately very clear to me that Mr. Hatch lied," Torres said.
That seems like a really long sentence for tax evasion.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 7:46 AM
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Castonguay pour le ticket modérateur
On trouve ce matin en manchette dans La Presse, une entrevue révélatrice avec Claude Castonguay, père du système de santé public au Québec. Il prétend que le temps est arrivé d'instaurer un ticket modérateur dans la province. Bref, il dit que la seule façon de sauver le système de santé public serait d'exiger un paiement de $25 lors de chaque visite chez le médecin.
L'ancien politicien libéral va déposer un mémoire sur le sujet aujourd'hui devant la commission parlementaire sur la place du privé et le financement à long terme du système de santé.
Très rafraîchissant de voir cet ancien politicien être aussi franc que ça sur un sujet un peu "tabou" dans plusieurs milieux québécois. Ça me donne beaucoup de confiance parce qu'après la décision Chaoulli, le Québec est devenu le leader en ce qui concerne l'innovation et le bon sens dans la réforme du système de santé. Félicitations à M. Castonguay. Fort encourageant!
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:43 AM
Monday, May 15, 2006
Weekend in Toronto
I was in Toronto for the weekend at a friend's wedding, which explains the lack of blogging.
My sister complains that I don't talk about my family enough on this blog, so I'm posting a picture from our Mother's Day breakfast.
(My sister Emily, me, mom Elizabeth.)
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:02 AM
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Would the law permit sending a dividend to taxpayers?
Daniel Dufort
Je voudrais accueillir mon bon ami Daniel Dufort, un collègue à la faculté de droit à l'Université Laval, à la blogosphère. Je n'ai aucun doute que son blogue sera fort intéressant et je vous conseille tous à le lire fréquemment.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 8:10 AM
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Persona non grata at the CBC
In an oped in today's National Post by Michael Coren (available free online), the journalist and broadcaster recounts the story of how he was unceremoniously dumped from a planned appearance on CBC News Sunday last week for absolutely no reason:
At 6 p.m. on Saturday I received a call from a seemingly embarrassed Ms. Malik. "I'm afraid I have to tell you that we're cancelling you for the morning. I'm so sorry. I do apologize for the inconvenience." I replied that it was indeed rather inconvenient because I had rearranged my Sunday to accommodate her, and that it was purely fortuitous that she had caught me at home. But, I continued, the greater point was why I was being cancelled. "Well, we've just had our meeting and it was decided to change the panel." I asked if the panel was being changed because of me. There was a pause. And then, "I have to be honest, I'm not going to lie or beat around the bush. Yes, it was." I asked how many people were at the meeting and was told there were "about 10." I asked who some of them were but was told, "it would be unprofessional of me to tell you that." When I pushed for a more full explanation, the thickness of the plot became ludicrous. "We have to book panels that work together." Fine, I replied, you don't actually have a panel yet and the only person you are cancelling is myself. Mr. Laghi, the other panellist and someone I don't even know, has not been cancelled and no third panellist yet booked. And, anyway, why would this panel not work? There was no explanation. Read the whole article, because frankly, it is scandalous. There's no better way to expose the CBC's bias than with examples like this. It will be interesting to see if this story is picked up on by Antonia Zerbisias and other media commentators in the coming days.
UPDATE: A Zerb is on the case, citing this blog in her post as an example of how the Coren incident "is giving comfort to CBC's enemies." Comfort? Not really. Maybe mild anger or disgust, but more than anything just shrugged shoulders.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 8:47 AM
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Getting off message
As Stephen Taylor noted, last weekend conservatives from across the country met in Ottawa for the annual Civitas society conference. Civitas is an organization of professors, activists, journalists and many others who gather once a year for a series of panel discussions on current affairs issues. (As Stephen wrote, the contents of the meeting are strictly off-the-record, so it was disappointing that the content of one speech ended up in a news story. A former editor of the National Post once tried to force me to write a feature story about the society and what goes on at the meetings, to which I refused.)
Anyway, I ended up getting interviewed by the CBC's Christina Lawand for what I was told was a story about Harper's first 100 days in office. You can click here to see the video, which ended up being all about Maurice Vellacott and his now-infamous comments about the Supreme Court.
Of course Vellacott's comments were a perfect contrast to the points made by both me and Janet Ecker: that the Harper government has so far shown a great amount of focus, clarity and message discipline.
Vellacott handled the situation correctly by putting out a statement apologizing and making it clear he represented no one but himself. Unfortunately, the damage has already been done.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:32 AM
Monday, May 08, 2006
Bouchard coming back?
About a year ago, this blog reported that rumours were circulating to the effect that Lucien Bouchard may jump back into politics to lead the ADQ. Over the weekend, those rumours hit a fever pitch with open speculation in the French newspapers about a Mario Dumont-led effort to lure Bouchard into the fold -- as well as a new poll showing Quebecers would elect him Premier.
My understanding is that informal negotations have been ongoing for months, and that Bouchard could step forward at any time to announce a return to public life. It is unclear whether or not he would lead the ADQ or just be a candidate for it. But it is almost certain he would run on a platform similar (or even identical to) the ideas contained in Pour un Québec lucide, the document released last year which advocated a Mike Harris-style restructuring of Quebec's bloated provincial government, tax cuts, deregulated tuition fees and more emphasis on learning English in school.
Interesting times ...
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:07 AM
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Too rich
Look who's giving advice to the Liberal Party.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:49 PM
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
On the budget
For the first time ever, I actually clapped in front of my TV sitting at home alone yesterday. Especially when the Finance Minister announced that spending will be focused only in areas that are of federal responsibility. Here is a good synopsis of what's contained.
Before saying anything I wanted to wait and see how the press reacted. It's overall pretty good coverage, with some predictable stuff about how it is "ideological". It isn't that ideological, but rather a shift in the modus operandi of the federal government. As Craig Oliver noted on CTV, this is the end of the style of government that throws money around into various ministries and foundations for pet projects and a return to letting Canadians have their own money. This is an absolutely huge and critical step in reversing the statist culture inculcated by the Liberals. Some conservatives may be unhappy with some of the spending increases, but make no mistake: this is a fundamentally sound conservative budget.
Lastly, I would love to hear from someone "in the know" about why the lowest tax bracket figure is being "raised" (read: not going ahead with the Liberal plan) by .5, from 15% to 15.5%. I know the overall amount of tax being paid by low-income people is still less under the Conservative plan, but why even do the small hike and give the opposition some ammunition? I'm sure there's a good political/economic answer, but I'd be curious to know it.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 7:38 AM
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Tory Quebec strategy is working and why there won't be an election anytime soon
The latest poll shows them tied with the Bloc Quebecois. Result: The Bloc will sustain this government for quite a while, because whenever the next election is called, they will lose quite a few seats.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:44 AM
Budget Day
If you want to know why there is so much antipathy aimed at the Harper government in the press corps, just read the A section of today's Globe and Mail. Today is budget day. The old practice is that the press is leaked all kinds of goodies the night before, so that the day the budget is read the papers are already full of what's going to be in it. Not anymore. The Globe has a single substantive story, quoting one source and reprinting Jim Flaherty's public comments from an event he was at yesterday. This is just not the kind of treatment they are used to.
This is the real reason for the recent public sparring. It's not so much about reporters having to go to another room for press conferences or the protocol changes, it is all about the amount of news. The Tories are firm in their resolve to stick to their five priorities no matter what, and that is making for not much news in Ottawa. With the hundreds of reporters that make up the press gallery roaming around hunting for stories, that is making for not enough news. It's as simple as that. They don't have enough work and they are frustrated.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:31 AM
Monday, May 01, 2006
Not for the faint hearted
Last night I saw United 93 at the theatre. This is a very powerful movie that I wholeheartedly recommend to everyone. Especially to those who might be feeling a little less resolved about the need to eradicate Islamism as Sept. 11 fades farther from memory. The movie was made to resemble as closely as possible the events that took place on the actual flight. But the greatest impact of the movie is in showing how utterly unprepared governments, the Pengaton, NORAD and all other transportation and security-related agencies and bodies were for that day. It was a total failure of emergency preparedness. We truly were on a holiday from history after the end of the Cold War. Never again!
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:36 PM
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