News of the Restless

Sorry, NOT sorry…because you know it’s true.

Hey! Know how right-wingers are always going on about how small-L liberals are “fascists” because they give you dirty looks for saying the N-word, the C-word, and all those other things that aren’t “politically correct” to say? Well, they’re all wet. Liberals (with a capital L, because they’re the current federal ruling party of Canada) aren’t fascist. But they sure as hell enable a lot of actual fascists…who are, as fascists always have been, firmly situated on the right.

Oh, you need evidence? All right, here you go then…

Exhibit A: A Liberal cabinet minister who still refers to her actual Nazi grandfather as a “patriot”.

German military records have been found in a Polish government archive in Warsaw revealing that Michael Chomiak, maternal grandfather of Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, volunteered to serve in the German invasion of Poland long before the German Army attacked the Soviet Union and invaded Ukraine.

Chomiak’s records show he was trained in Vienna for German espionage and propaganda operations, then promoted to run the German press machine for the Galician region of Ukraine and Poland during the 4-year occupation. So high-ranking and active in the Nazi cause was Chomiak that the Polish intelligence services were actively hunting for Chomiak until the 1980s – without knowing he had fled for safety to an Alberta farm in Canada.

The newly disclosed documents expose Freeland’s repeated lying that Chomiak had been a victim of World War II; an unwilling journalist overpowered by German military force; compelled to write propaganda extolling the German Army’s successes, and advocating the destruction of the Jews, Poles and Russians. As for Freeland’s claim that Chomiak had secretly aided the Ukrainian resistance, sources in Warsaw believe Chomiak was trained by the Germans as a double-agent,penetrating Ukrainian groups and spying on them.

The Polish records also point to the likelihood that US Army, US intelligence and Canadian immigration records on Chomiak – concealed until now – can confirm in greater detail what Chomiak did during the war, as well as for years afterward, which made him a target for the Polish police until not long before his death in 1984.

True, Chrystia Freeland is not responsible for her grandfather’s sins. She is, however, responsible for covering them up with the cloak of “patriotism” (note the quotes, there for a reason). But the fact that Justin Trudeau isn’t in any hurry to distance himself from her over any of that is pretty damn telling…and pretty damn DAMNING. Could it be because Liberals-with-a-big-L don’t think having a Nazi in the family closet is that big a deal, because they still think, all these years after the Cold War supposedly ended, that communism is worse? Even though Justin’s own dad was BFFs with Fidel Castro, an avowed communist? Don’t look to Justin to say anything about it, though…he backed out of attending Fidel’s funeral like a coward after the local Nazis — who simply call themselves Conservatives — all pissed themselves and moaned when he said a few nice words about Fidel on the public record. About the only thing we can count on him to do here is cave to the fascists by saying nothing.

Exhibit B: Again, Chrystia Freeland shows her pro-fascist hand, this time over Venezuela…and again Justin says nada, because he likes the Venezuelan fascists, too.

Canadian Foreign Minister, Chrystia Freeland, who was widely criticized in March for admitting she’s “proud” of her family’s Nazi past, has expressed “concern” over Venezuela.

Last month, she released a statement saying “Canada is troubled” by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s call for a National Constituent Assembly — a call, supported by various social movements, made to ease the high-running political tensions in the country and promote dialogue.

“We call on the government of Venezuela to release all political prisoners and set an electoral calendar without delay. Free and fair elections including all of Venezuela’s eligible voters are required to solve the country’s crisis,” Freeland had added.

The minister has participated in several OAS meetings in the last few months, including the ones currently taking place this week in Cancun, Mexico, and co-sponsored a proposal together with Peru, the United States, Mexico and Panama that if approved, would have called on Caracas to cancel the National Constitutient Assembly, among other measures.

In addition, a former Canadian justice minister, Irwin Cotler, is the lawyer who represents jailed Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez. Lopez, who sells himself as a political prisoner despite his long and sordid history in Venezuelan politics, was imprisoned in 2015 for 14 years for inciting violence in the deadly “guarimbas,” violent street blockade protests that led to the deaths of 43 people. The attorney has appeared to back suggestions that Ottawa could have a role in regional approaches to Venezuela.

“I agree with the notion of the foreign minister and president of Peru that Trudeau at this point is seen as someone who can have a global role and can be an effective mediator,” Cotler told The Globe and Mail this week.

Lopez’s wife, Lilian Tintori, an outspoken opponent of Maduro and the Bolivarian Revolution who often meets with right-wing figures such as U.S. President Donald Trump and Argentina’s Mauricio Macri to rally her cause, also met with Trudeau last month.

Shortly after that meeting, Trudeau called on the Venezuelan government to “restore the constitutional ‎order, including the release of all political prisoners and to set an electoral calendar without delay.”

Never mind that there ARE free and fair elections in Venezuela already, and another of Justin’s dad’s old friends, Jimmy Carter, has said so himself. No, the fake democracy of the far right must be promoted! And the truth about the situation in Venezuela — that Prettyboy Leo and his Khaleesi-coiffed wifey are in fact antidemocratic, fascist putschists who routinely call for guarimbas and support opposition “protesters” in their violence — gets swept shamefully under the rug, along with Chrystia’s actual Nazi granddaddy.

Pity for them that the facts contradict them on every point. Leopoldo López isn’t a “political prisoner”, he’s a politician prisoner — a vital distinction to make, as he’s in jail for conspiring to stage a coup against a democratically elected president. And more embarrassingly still, he’s there because he turned himself in to avoid being assassinated…by goons on his own side! He’s a cowardly wuss who can’t even put his own life on the line for his beliefs (because he doesn’t have any, apart from “I must be president, because I was born rich and white!”), and is actually quite content to let the Venezuelan federales cart him off to jail for his own protection. So democratic. Much leadership. Wow!

And this is the bunch Justin Trudeau & Co. have chosen to throw in their lot with in Venezuela? Pathetic.

Exhibit C: And speaking of fake democracy and sham human rights, Justin himself is big on the very police-state tactics that he and Chrystia Freeland accuse Venezuela of having.

With its new national security legislation, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has pulled off quite a coup. It has kept some of the worst elements of former prime minister Stephen Harper’s widely discredited Bill C-51. But so far, it has managed to do so without creating much political flak.

[…]

First, they would give CSIS agents explicit authority to engage in certain kinds of illegal acts. These acts would be spelled out by the public safety minister but could not include bodily harm, obstruction of justice, torture, detaining a person or violating someone’s sexual integrity.

An agent wishing to engage in permitted illegal acts would need no judicial warrant.

The government says these new powers would merely replace a more general grant of immunity from criminal prosecution already present in law. But the new formulation, which echoes one granted to police officers, could also hasten the transformation of CSIS from a pure intelligence agency to an intelligence and enforcement agency.

Second, the Liberals would give CSIS agents the authority to break the law in a more serious way in order to disrupt perceived security threats. Like the Conservatives’ Bill C-51, the Liberal draft law would require CSIS to obtain a secret judicial warrant. Unlike C-51, the permitted law-breaking would be limited to seven areas, ranging from interfering with financial transactions to interfering with the movement of people.

As well, the law-breaking would have to be consistent with the charter of rights.

The Liberals never promised to axe Bill C-51. Indeed, in opposition they voted for it — with a promise to make amendments if elected.

Stealth fascism under the guise of “protecting charter rights”? CSIS gets to join the Mounties as our de facto political police force? How very Liberal. Or, as I like to call it, HarpoCon Lite.

And in a further interesting irony, the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada is calling for protests against it. Yes, that’s right: Actual communists are calling for more freedoms and no more political policing. Only in Canada, eh? Pity!

Exhibit D: And speaking of pity, get a load of what the Trudeau Liberals are doing to the First Nations peoples. STILL.

The Justin Trudeau Liberal government is taking the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to Federal Court over a ruling last month that linked the suicide deaths in a northern Ontario First Nation with Ottawa’s inaction on implementing total equity in health care delivery for Indigenous children.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett and Health Minister Jane Philpott issued a joint statement Friday saying the tribunal’s May 26 ruling contained two issues that they, as medical doctors, could not allow to stand and needed clarification from the Federal Court.

“Our views on this are informed by our past experiences,” said Philpott, in an interview Friday morning.

The ministers took issue with the tribunal’s order that all Jordan’s Principle cases be processed within 48 hours and that the federal departments do away with case conferencing, which it saw as an unnecessary and additional administrative layer.

Under Jordan’s Principle, the health care needs of First Nations children are placed ahead of jurisdictional disputes between the federal and provincial governments. It also applies to other public services, including education, early childhood learning and child welfare.

The Human Rights Tribunal ruled last year that Ottawa discriminated against First Nation children by underfunding child welfare services on reserve and by failing to provide health care services on par with the rest of the country.

The Trudeau Liberals have spent at least $707,000 fighting the tribunal’s order, according to numbers obtained by NDP MP Charlie Angus through an Order Paper question.

Nice, eh? For all his mouthing of platitudes about the First Peoples of this land, Justin and his Liberal government are dragging their heels, at best, about doing anything to help them move forward and gain a standard of living that’s on a par with that of non-indigenous Canadians. And indeed, they are wasting our taxpayer dollars to make sure nothing gets done. It’s hard to read this as anything but objectively racist and pointlessly cruel.

Exhibit E: And last, but not least, press freedoms — an essential right in any self-respecting democracy — are conspicuously absent here in Canada.

Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) is disappointed that the House of Commons failed to pass Bill S-231, the Journalistic Source Protection Act, before rising for summer recess. By failing to pass the bill now the House has missed a crucial chance to taken a stand for press freedom, and to extend badly-needed protections to confidential sources. Canada is one of the only industrialized countries in the world that lacks legislation for the protection of journalists’ sources. Given the possibility that the government will prorogue Parliament before the fall session begins, the bill faces the prospect of dying while awaiting passage in the House of Commons.

“We’re disappointed that Members of Parliament were unable to take this simple step to protect press freedom in Canada,” says Tom Henheffer, Executive Director of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression. “Bill S-231 would be the beginning of full legal recognition for the role of journalists in serving the public and protecting democracy. Instead journalists and their sources will remain vulnerable to inconsistent or unfair treatment by the courts. Its swift passage needs to be a priority when MPs return in the fall.”

Be sure to sign the petition at the link, folks. Protest seems to be the only way we can get this bunch to move in the right direction on anything anymore…and even then, only sometimes.

So, what can we conclude from the above evidence? I think you already know the answers, gentle reader. Justin Trudeau’s Liberals may not be overt fascists…yet. But they sure are leaning in that general direction, and it won’t take much pushing from actual fascists to put them over the edge. They love money and power, just as any arch-capitalist fascist does. And they don’t give a damn for basic human rights. Their interest in free speech only extends so far as to protect the kinds of speech that they like, and while their racism is the polite, bureaucratic kind, it’s there, bubbling away just below the surface of everything they say and do.

And if that’s not objectively pro-fascist, I sure as hell don’t know what is.