It is eight years now since The Spectator sent me to Lampedusa to see the boats coming in. That was at the start of the 2015 migrant crisis. The island, which is home to just 6,000 locals, had just buckled under the weight of another 1,300 arrivals. I followed them to Sicily and then on up and across the continent. If I may be self-referential for a moment, it was on Lampedusa that I realized the scale of the problem and got the opening lines of my resulting book, The Strange Death of Europe: “Europe is committing suicide. Or at least its leaders have decided to commit suicide. Whether the European people choose to go along with this is, naturally, another matter.”
Whether it is Islam, climate or immigration: the costs of freedom of expression can be enormous.
When a taxi driver, after dropping him off at home, said “now I know where you live” to the famous Tagesschau journalist Constantin Schreiber it was time to stop. He will no longer comment on Islam. Schreiber won’t say anything more. He will be like the three little monkeys: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.”
“I won’t write any more books on the subject, I will refuse requests from talk shows, I won’t do it again,” Schreiber told Zeit editor Giovanni di Lorenzo. Schreiber had written investigations and criticized sermons in mosques and Koranic schools. On August 29, during a conference at the University of Jena, Schreiber had a cake thrown in his face by left-wing activists. “I don’t want that negativity in my life”, says Schreiber, whose book about a Muslim woman who is about to become chancellor in 2050 caused a sensation. It deals with the “creeping Islamization of Germany”. Since I won’t talk about Islam anymore, Schreiber says, some might “celebrate and open bottles of sparkling wine.”
A legal battle playing out in a northern Ontario courtroom this month has seen an alliance of First Nations argue they are owed upwards of $100 billion for the Crown’s failure to honour a 173-year-old treaty promise, while the federal and provincial governments claim they are either owed far less, or nothing at all.
The case being heard in Thunder Bay, Ont.(opens in a new tab), could have historic implications for First Nations representing roughly 15,000 Anishinaabe people(opens in a new tab) along the northern shores of Lake Superior and is being closely followed by legal observers.
Steps from the old quarter of Amritsar, the holiest city for the Sikh community, 62-year- old Ashok Kumar tended his newspaper stand, with the dailies perched precariously on the seat of a scooter, and sighed. The headlines are dominated by the news — in English and Punjabi — of the bitter diplomatic fight between India and Canada, and Kumar doesn’t like it.
“This shouldn’t be happening,” said Kumar, especially with what he called “baseless speculation” from Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau.
Not the first time … Andriy Melnyk has incensed Germany, Poland and Israel in downplaying Second World War massacres by Ukrainian fascist insurgents
Speaker of the House Anthony Rota apologized Sunday for honouring a man who fought in a Nazi unit during the Second World War.
Rota was responding to condemnation from Jewish groups and others stemming from a moment during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Parliament on Friday. During the visit, Rota said the man was “a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service.”
Those gathered in the House responded with applause and a standing ovation.
MPs honour man who fought for Nazis during Zelenskyy’s visit to Parliament
Several Jewish advocacy organizations are condemning members of Parliament for giving a standing ovation to a man who fought for a Nazi unit during the Second World War.
During Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Ottawa on Friday, MPs honoured 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka in the House of Commons.
More … B’nai Brith Canada Condemns Parliament’s Standing Ovation for Nazi SS Veteran
OTTAWA – B’nai Brith Canada is shocked after Parliament last Friday celebrated a veteran of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division (14th Waffen SS).
During Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to address Canada’s House of Commons last week, Speaker Anthony Rota acknowledged 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka to demonstrate solidarity with Ukraine as it fends off Russia’s unprovoked and illegal invasion. Hunka, who immigrated to Canada after serving in the 14th Waffen SS – a Nazi unit whose members swore allegiance to Adolf Hitler during WWII – received a standing ovation from members of Parliament and senators in attendance.
Progressive ideology has turned UK law enforcement into a woke farce
A few weeks ago, a story made headlines that outraged civil liberties advocates and critics of state over-reach. It revealed how much the British police have sunk into farce. A teenage girl with autism had been dragged from her home and arrested by a group of police officers after she said a female police officer looked like her lesbian grandmother. Well, the same force involved in this shocking display of state power – West Yorkshire Police – has done it again.
Auto workers are on strike nationally, hoping to wrest more pay for the work they do. These workers might want to focus on the pay they’re going to lose when their work disappears, courtesy of “electrification” — the making of electric vehicles that will require fewer workers and lead to fewer buyers.
Denise George, the 64-year-old former attorney-general of the US Virgin Islands, is sitting in a hotel room on the main island of St Thomas, looking out at a view of green hills and Caribbean sea. While the photographer takes her picture, she sways to music coming from the swimming pool below. Amid this idyllic scene it is hard to believe that this is the woman who, for the best part of the past four years, has been entrenched in a legal battle with the estate of the financier, paedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Their relationships might be close, the handshakes might have been firm, but President Volodymyr Zelensky had to roll his sleeves up during his trip to the US and Canada.
The latter was the easier end. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to support Ukraine “for as long as it takes” against Russia’s invasion, and he has cross-party support in that endeavour.
America’s pockets are deeper, but its politics are far more complicated.
President Zelensky secured another $325m (£265m) military package from the White House, but it wasn’t the $24bn biggie he’d been hoping for.
After besieging and starving 120,000 Armenians of the South Caucasus Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) since December 2022, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military offensive against Artsakh on September 19, subjecting the capital Stepanakert and other cities and villages to intensive fire using heavy artillery and drones.
Civilians, including children, are being killed and others seriously wounded. Thousands of Armenians who fled their villages and towns due to the Azerbaijani bombardments have become homeless.
For centuries, Jews have debated what it means to be one. One thing all Jews can probably agree on is that a connection to extremists with antisemitic views and aims to overthrow the German republic is a disqualifier.
But that hasn’t stopped some from trying.
At least 10 associations calling themselves Jewish received official, nonprofit status, only to be revealed to have links to Germany’s “Reichsbürger” (literally, “citizens of the German Empire”) scene.
Two groups in the Canadian Sikh diaspora are calling for Canada’s political parties to “present a united front” on India after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a “potential link” between the shooting death of a local leader and the Indian government.
In a joint statement, the Ontario Gurdwaras Committee and the British Columbia Gurdwaras Council say that “Canadian parties of all stripes must be unequivocally clear” about their opposition to possible foreign interference relating to the death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June.
The Liberals and NDP already do present a united front against India, that’s the problem.
How about asking for a united front against foreign terrorists using Canada as a safe haven? Or is that racist?
Gangland Canada: Trudeau’s backyard global hub of 8 Indian crime lords
The killing of Sukhdool Singh Gill aka Sukha Duneke in Winnipeg, Canada, on Wednesday has thrown the spotlight on the global operations of notorious Indian criminal gangs.
Duneke, who was allegedly associated with the infamous Bambiha gang, was wanted in multiple cases in India, including for murder, extortion, and attempt to murder.
On Sunday, ABC News released a poll in conjunction with The Washington Post and the results were apocalyptically bad for Joe Biden’s reelection chances against former President Donald Trump. Aside from the Jimmy Carter-like disapproval ratings on the economy and inflation, Biden is now losing to Trump by 9 points in a head-to-head matchup. Of course, ABC’s This Week had a near-panic attack when reporting the numbers. It was fun to watch.
Ankita Goel was optimistic when she decided to leave her management consulting job in Mumbai in 2019 to follow her husband to Vancouver, where he already had a job in the tech sector.
Four years later, the cost of living in the city has her regretting her choice.
“Housing is unaffordable, groceries are going up, rent is going up as well, and it’s making me seriously consider moving out of Vancouver,” Goel told Cross Country Checkup.
Ankita Goel was optimistic when she decided to leave her management consulting job in Mumbai in 2019 to follow her husband to Vancouver, where he already had a job in the tech sector.