Vancouver 2010!
Right on. Right on. . Right on. Right on.

I especially enjoyed the NY Times coverage (third link)....just for the hideous picture of Sheila Copps.

After very little speculation, attention or analysis by the east coast establishment, the media, politicians and other opportunists remembered that Vancouver does exist. And that lo and behold! we're "world class" out here. Even this morning, quebecor media and the globe and mail were fronting the "toronto off SARS list" rather than the "Vancouver wins the 2010 bid". I guess all the people hitting the vancouver story finally got them on the right priority....the american reports centred on how New York "lost" their 2012 bid because vancouver won--so lame. Vancouver won because we had a great bid. New York threw its name in the hat for 2012 about 5 minutes ago and has invested nothing (no time, money, energy, emotion) to its bid so far. Also, it happens to be up against Paris and London-->better get those excuses ready, right?

Instead of being bitter, i'll just say that i hope this brings canada closer as a country, and maybe it will force the east to recognize the western half of this country.....

Haven for Who?
LGF gets it wrong.. My comments are #48, under "shamrocks". I admit i wrote my comments quite fast and was quite agitated when i wrote them. ....How could Charles post this the day after Canada Day? What's wrong with this guy?

The main thrust of the article is that Canada is a haven for terrorists because there may be terrorists who belong to, or people who sympathize with 15 of 80 recognized international terrorist organizations...

so theoretically there could 15 people in canada all belonging to seperate international terrorist groups? wow. bring in the artillery, canada needs "regime change".

First of all, I'll be the first guy to say that the country needs to step up to the plate and get this under control ...but the evidence is hardly convincing. The "director" and only member of the Mackenzie Institute, John C. Thompson makes a living of providing sensationalized 'papers' which are more like badly written newspaper articles. He is a counter-terrorism "expert" who comes up with such amazing insights in the "canadian terrorist haven" paper:

Without providing an exhaustive survey of terrorism within Canada, recent events have graphically demonstrated that Islamic Fundamentalists are present. The Air India bombing of 1985 killed 329 people (most of whom were Canadian citizens) and remains the most lethal aircraft bombing to date. The Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka have a considerable fundraising apparatus established in Canada, while members and supporters of the Kurdish PKK are also present. Over the years, Iranian exiles, radical Black Muslims, the Provisional Wing of the IRA (and their Protestant counterparts), and various Palestinian groups have also surfaced in Canada.

Hmm, a serious intellectual paper "without providing an exhaustive survey" eh? That's what i always say! How can i be thorough when I am attempting to slander my own country?

and when you write "islamic terrorists" without backing that up you mention the Air India bombing which was done by Sikhs, not muslims, you are also saving time because you won't be "providing an exhaustive survey". Thanks for that. All that research...maybe intuition could have told you that sikhs were behind that, but no matter.

But let's keep going for a second:

Mr. Thompson goes on to try and link "terrorism" and a "high concentration of foreigners". ...which is funny because he states that:

As with the United States, immigration rates were especially high in the decade before the First World War. For example, in 1910-1913, Canada averaged 323,800 new arrivals each year – a rate that has not been repeated since.

insane?! you mean surely that this was the height of "radical Canadian terrorism" ! especially since such a high number would have meant canada's immigrant population would have been massive relative to the size of the country!

here's another gem:

By 1996, some 219,425 Canadian citizens and residents were from Middle Eastern nations that have manifested Islamic Fundamentalist violence. This is up from 178,205 in 1991. The vast majority of these new Canadians are interested in building a new life for themselves and their families, but not all are harmless. The escape route for the World Trade Centre bombers lay through southern Ontario, where airline tickets and new identification were waiting for them.

Forgetting for the moment, that this little "factoid" is completely wandering, completely unusable and off topic, the fact that some terrorists planned to use canada as an escape route means nothing. Between New York and Canada....it is not all canadian land. This and the fact that "plan" never "actualized" means this example is ...oh say "completely useless". If i plan tomorrow to steal a billion dollars from cambodia tomorrow but i am caught by canadian authorities today, does that mean that cambodia has a "banking problem"?

More problems:

In the autumn of 1998, a fundamentalist cult leader in northern Alberta, was (and remains) the leading suspect in a series of hundreds of incidents of vandalism aimed at nearby logging and gas activities. The local community, feeling threatened by a series of bombs on sour gas pipe-lines and rifle shots fired at pumping stations, was on the verge of vigilante action. The local detachment (for an area that had some 50,000 residents spread over 6,500 square kilometres) consisted of eight officers

Although real researchers would actually say the "cult leader" name, if you are completely useless and have not done any homework, you may have problems. The person thompson refers to, of course, is weibo ludwig. mr ludwig is not a fundamentalist cult leader, but he is a vigilante. The use of this inflammatory writing is perfect if you are trying to use buzzwords that will inflame the senses. .."oh you mean like a fundamentalist muslim?"

Mr. Ludwig is just one violent, patriarchal and ultimately strange man, who didn't like oil companies. He is not part of a immigrant terrorist population. He is not part of a larger, violent religious order and he is not exporting terrorism to the US. He is a weirdo in Northern Alberta. He has nothing to do with this study.

i'm tired. this is easy and depressing. why is this guy taken seriously? time for bed.