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Be careful in Canada, Australians warned
Terrorists, thieves and tornadoes - oh, Canada!
Australians considering a trip to the Great White North may find themselves quickly making other plans after reading their federal government's travel advisory on Canada.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade recently updated its "Smart Traveller" website - intended to give travellers "up-to-date information about the risks Australians might face overseas" - and classified the world's nations into five categories based on their current "security situation."
Canada falls into the second safest category, called "exercise caution" (not as safe as Chile, Romania and South Korea), with terrorism listed as the top concern.
"We advise you to exercise caution and monitor developments that might affect your safety in Canada because of the risk of terrorist attack," the website reads.
"Pay close attention to your personal security and monitor the media for information about possible new safety or security risks."
Unnati Gandhi
Globe and Mail
January 25, 2008
"Canadian", as it turns out, is a cryptoracist code word for "Nigger".
The email went out about winning the trial even though they had 3 "Canadians" on the jury. A black prosecutor who was offended and hurt by this email blast, went to the court where the case was tried the next day and pulled the jury list to confirm his suspicion that [the prosecutor] was using "canadian" as a code word for Nigger. [The prosecutor] tried to stop the clerk from giving the prosecutor the list, but the clerk, who was black, gave it to him anyway. The 3 jurors referred to by [the prosecutor] were confirmed as being black (ie., Canadians, Niggers, etc). The blk prosecutor confronted [the prosecutor] right then and there man-to-man in private. As [the prosecutor] told his version of the story to people in power, this blk prosecutor was black-balled and is receiving "threats" right now so I cannot disclose his name. Eventually, Joe Owmby [a black senior prosecutor] did some email research on the use of this phrase -- that Canadian is the racist code word for Nigger, like Australian is the code word for gays -- and presented it to Lyn McClellan [a white more-senior prosecutor] to stop the rift. This prosecutor was hurt and alienated by the powers that be in the office and had to quit to find a peaceful work environment.
Mark Hornby
January 13, 2008
Despite hailing from Soviet Canuckistan I can't summon up much outrage (on behalf of the Great White North) over these totally absurd stories. It's sort of difficult to be offended by a travel advisory so cracked out that it boggles the mind. I give it a WTF Factor of 10 out of 5. I mean consider that violent crime rates in Australia, Britain, the US and Canada are roughly comparable, and I would imagine death-by-nature rates too, and you really have to wonder about this one.
I wouldn't warn Canadians not to travel to the US because of the chance of being shot in Detroit, or getting killed by a... I know, a freakin' geyser in Yellowstone.
I am offended by the second story, but not on behalf of TGWN. Sweet zombie Jesus! The fact that Canadian=Nigger, Australian=Faggot were commonly known code words, (and broadly accepted, if we can judge by the fact that the story blew open due to the efforts of ONE GUY), is completely disgusting. And then, for the office to black-ball him for exposing this intolerable situation - for exposing entrenched and just barely covert racism in the office of a state prosecutor! - is absolutely unacceptable. Full stop.
***
It's official: Feminism is out of style
Whether it's because we've all fallen asleep at our tasks like Snow White, or whether we've been outplayed in a subtle and long-standing culture war, what is clear is that we are living in a new era of post-feminism. That the young women I know see no great victory in Hillary Clinton's run for the U.S. presidency is proof enough. That they also see Barack Obama as the one candidate who represents "change" is nothing less than astounding.
Ever since Clinton and her contemporaries crammed their way into law and business schools, we've been told by everyone from the cheerleading women's business networks to Virginia Slims that we've made it. Turning our backs on conventional feminism and its grinding focus on women's oppression, we empowered our daughters to embrace the more upbeat Girl Power movement. Candy-coating the world in Spice Girls tunes, pink-feathered purses and Sex and the City, we sold them a bill of goods: that women are as free and unencumbered as men, that they can achieve any goal they might dream of - even that the odds are in their favour.
...
As Steinem herself (yes, she is still alive) observed of the Clinton/Obama challenge in The New York Times, gender - not race - is still "probably the most restricting force in American life," adding that "black men were given the vote a half-century before women" and have ascended the ranks of power in greater numbers in advance of women.
Globe and Mail
Karen von Hahn
January 26, 2008
Terrorists, thieves and tornadoes - oh, Canada!
Australians considering a trip to the Great White North may find themselves quickly making other plans after reading their federal government's travel advisory on Canada.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade recently updated its "Smart Traveller" website - intended to give travellers "up-to-date information about the risks Australians might face overseas" - and classified the world's nations into five categories based on their current "security situation."
Canada falls into the second safest category, called "exercise caution" (not as safe as Chile, Romania and South Korea), with terrorism listed as the top concern.
"We advise you to exercise caution and monitor developments that might affect your safety in Canada because of the risk of terrorist attack," the website reads.
"Pay close attention to your personal security and monitor the media for information about possible new safety or security risks."
Unnati Gandhi
Globe and Mail
January 25, 2008
"Canadian", as it turns out, is a cryptoracist code word for "Nigger".
The email went out about winning the trial even though they had 3 "Canadians" on the jury. A black prosecutor who was offended and hurt by this email blast, went to the court where the case was tried the next day and pulled the jury list to confirm his suspicion that [the prosecutor] was using "canadian" as a code word for Nigger. [The prosecutor] tried to stop the clerk from giving the prosecutor the list, but the clerk, who was black, gave it to him anyway. The 3 jurors referred to by [the prosecutor] were confirmed as being black (ie., Canadians, Niggers, etc). The blk prosecutor confronted [the prosecutor] right then and there man-to-man in private. As [the prosecutor] told his version of the story to people in power, this blk prosecutor was black-balled and is receiving "threats" right now so I cannot disclose his name. Eventually, Joe Owmby [a black senior prosecutor] did some email research on the use of this phrase -- that Canadian is the racist code word for Nigger, like Australian is the code word for gays -- and presented it to Lyn McClellan [a white more-senior prosecutor] to stop the rift. This prosecutor was hurt and alienated by the powers that be in the office and had to quit to find a peaceful work environment.
Mark Hornby
January 13, 2008
Despite hailing from Soviet Canuckistan I can't summon up much outrage (on behalf of the Great White North) over these totally absurd stories. It's sort of difficult to be offended by a travel advisory so cracked out that it boggles the mind. I give it a WTF Factor of 10 out of 5. I mean consider that violent crime rates in Australia, Britain, the US and Canada are roughly comparable, and I would imagine death-by-nature rates too, and you really have to wonder about this one.
I wouldn't warn Canadians not to travel to the US because of the chance of being shot in Detroit, or getting killed by a... I know, a freakin' geyser in Yellowstone.
I am offended by the second story, but not on behalf of TGWN. Sweet zombie Jesus! The fact that Canadian=Nigger, Australian=Faggot were commonly known code words, (and broadly accepted, if we can judge by the fact that the story blew open due to the efforts of ONE GUY), is completely disgusting. And then, for the office to black-ball him for exposing this intolerable situation - for exposing entrenched and just barely covert racism in the office of a state prosecutor! - is absolutely unacceptable. Full stop.
***
It's official: Feminism is out of style
Whether it's because we've all fallen asleep at our tasks like Snow White, or whether we've been outplayed in a subtle and long-standing culture war, what is clear is that we are living in a new era of post-feminism. That the young women I know see no great victory in Hillary Clinton's run for the U.S. presidency is proof enough. That they also see Barack Obama as the one candidate who represents "change" is nothing less than astounding.
Ever since Clinton and her contemporaries crammed their way into law and business schools, we've been told by everyone from the cheerleading women's business networks to Virginia Slims that we've made it. Turning our backs on conventional feminism and its grinding focus on women's oppression, we empowered our daughters to embrace the more upbeat Girl Power movement. Candy-coating the world in Spice Girls tunes, pink-feathered purses and Sex and the City, we sold them a bill of goods: that women are as free and unencumbered as men, that they can achieve any goal they might dream of - even that the odds are in their favour.
...
As Steinem herself (yes, she is still alive) observed of the Clinton/Obama challenge in The New York Times, gender - not race - is still "probably the most restricting force in American life," adding that "black men were given the vote a half-century before women" and have ascended the ranks of power in greater numbers in advance of women.
Globe and Mail
Karen von Hahn
January 26, 2008