‘Most difficult time of our lives’: mayor responds to backlash over wife reading residential school book
A modern-day witch hunt continues to unfold in Quesnel, British Columbia, as calls from local First Nations, some community members, and a few city council members for the mayor to resign persist.
The thoughtcrime that sparked the moral panic surrounding Mayor Ron Paull wasn’t even related to his own actions.
Instead, cancel culture mobsters are demanding Paull’s resignation after learning that Paull’s wife, Pat Morton, read a book they don’t like and shared it with a couple of other people, suggesting they do the same. Additionally, Paull says falsehoods claiming he distributed the book around town are also spreading.
The book, authored by several and entitled “Grave Error: How The Media Misled Us and the Truth about Residential Schools“, was a top Amazon seller shortly after being first published in 2023 by True North and Dorchester. [Grave Error is available for $45 postage included from C-FAR Books, P.O. Box 332, Rexdale, ON., M9W 5L3, Canada.]
Similar to our 2022 Rebel News documentary, “Kamloops: The Buried Truth“, the book provides compelling evidence debunking a sensational claim made in May 2021 by the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation band government in Kamloops.
The claim was that “the confirmation of the remains of 215 children who were students of the Kamloops Indian Residential School” had been discovered in unmarked graves.
Grave Error, which consists of a collection of essays and articles, also provides evidence challenging prominent narratives about residential schools, such as the belief that attendance at all such institutions was compulsory and that thousands of Indigenous children went missing while attending them.
Since the backlash over the book in Quesnel, the book as resurfaced among Amazon’s top four bestsellers.
“I would say that this is indeed for me, and I think it’s the same for Pat as well, the most difficult time of our lives,” Paull told Rebel News while reflecting on what the couple has gone through in recent days.
Despite all the messages of love and support they’re receiving, Mayor Paull describes the past 11 days, which included a protest against him demanding his resignation supported by a few of his own colleagues on council, as being harder on him and his wife than the loss of their parents.
Paull says he assumes the spouses of council members and city officials should “have their own opinions and beliefs.”
“I’ve done nothing wrong,” Paull replied when asked if he will resign under the mounting pressure. – Drea Humphrey, Rebel News, April 8, 2024
Christian Decency Protest Leader Bubba Pollock Addresses CAFE & Alternative Forum, “Tactics & Strategies for Fighting Cancel Culture” Toronto, September 14, 2023
WHO IS BUBBA POLLOCK?/
• 34 year-old businessman, semi-retired • Born in London, went to UWO and Duke University • Got a degree in business • Lived and worked in London for many years, worked several different jobs • Talk about experience with cancel culture (media articles, social media comments, messages, getting banned from flag football etc.) • Not “death punch” for me as it might be for realtor with 2 kids and wife in a single-earner household or a small business owner with their name on the business • Today I want to talk about strategies we as a group and as individuals, no matter your situation, can use to fight cancel culture
Tactics & Strategies for Fighting Cancel Culture
Doxing • Doxing is identifying who a person is, what their views are and any information about them (workplace and organizations they’re a part of) • Call to action to a bigger group to make the person’s life difficult • Call to many people to reach out to these places and complain about the person, demanding they be “cancelled”
How to Counter Doxing • Use false statements people make to advantage, false negative statements made publicly may be slanderous, SAVE THEM • Legally, “To prevail in a defamation suit, whether for libel or slander, the plaintiff must show: That the statements in dispute are defamatory. That the plaintiff was alluded to by the terms. That the statements were spoken to at least one person other than the plaintiff” • Protect yourself from doxing: know the policies & procedures of any organizations you’re part of, regularly get a copy of your HR file, know organizational rules, and call them out if they violate them
Taking the War to the Woke Crowd • Take away the money, take away their platform, take away their power • Find ways to hit their bottom line • Protest businesses and organizations that support woke culture • Hit the bottom line of individuals who are active in cancel culture • Use misinformation to tax their resources for security and counter-protestors at events
Strategies Used Against Drag Story Time • The goal is to make protests a big event, a big issue to tax their resources, create supporter fatigue, and force them to pay for police and security • Document any illegal activity by the other side, report it to police to justify our own private security • Show the average person who supports us that they don’t have to fear cancel culture, get them to stand up and speak up Get Average People to Become Active • Step outside your circle, use a soft approach to get people on your side • Police don’t have resources to watch most members, but protect yourself by keeping everything legal
Canada’s poisonous cancel culture of speech control has claimed another victim. Jamie Cudmore is a former player and was assistant coach for the men’s national XVs team. After the women’s team rugby team imploded at the Olympics, losing to France and Fiji, he criticized their political stands — social justice warrior stuff about Indians and racial inclusion. He suggested that maybe more concentration on their game and less of political preaching might have served them better.
He tweeted: “
“Karma is a bitch! #Survivorsmyass,. I think someone could decolonize 9th place tomorrow.”His references to “survivors” and “decolonize” echoed statements the women’s team have made in the past.
The shameless Rugby Canada promptly fired Jamie Cudmore but had the gall to say they wished “to promote a healthy, inclusive culture” — just not inclusive or Mr. Cudmore or any political dissent.
On the other hand, Charity Williams of the women’s team relieved herself of such mawkish statements as: ““But as we know, we are more than athletes. This is what it looks like when you decolonize your space.” What does that even mean? And then: “we will be playing for us, the 1794 Indigenous children and counting, all the Black athletes who are only seen as valuable when they are successful and all survivors of abuse whose stories are not trusted 🧡” And, ““My hope is our team continues a legacy of creating safe and empowering spaces and organizations across Turtle Island and the world,” For the uninitiated, “Turtle Island” is what some Indians call Canada.
This self-styled victim couldn’t even gag out “Canada”. The only victim here is dissident Jamie Cudmore. — Paul Fromm
Canadian rugby coach fired following tweets criticizing Olympic women’s team
Jamie Cudmore, a former player and now an assistant coach for the men’s national XVs team, wrote the tweets after the women’s team crashed out of medal contention at Tokyo 2020
Anne-Cecile Ciofani of France in action with Elissa Alarie of Canada. Photo by SIPHIWE SIBEKO /REUTERS
A veteran of the Canadian men’s rugby team, who faced a stampede of criticism after he wrote a series of tweets criticizing the political stances taken by the national women’s rugby sevens team, has been fired by Rugby Canada.
Jamie Cudmore, a former player who was serving an assistant coach for the men’s national XVs team, as well as running the national development academy in Langford, B.C., was terminated Friday afternoon, Rugby Canada confirmed in an email.
Canadian rugby coach fired following tweets criticizing Olympic women’s team
After the women’s team crashed out of medal contention at Tokyo 2020, rather than criticizing the poor play of the team — they suffered heavy defeats against Fiji and France — Cudmore took aim at the team’s politics.
“Karma is a bitch! #Survivorsmyass,” he initially tweeted before sharing an image — not seen by Postmedia — that Twitter flagged as “potentially sensitive content.” He then tweeted “I think someone could decolonize 9th place tomorrow.”
His references to “survivors” and “decolonize” echoed statements the women’s team have made in the past.
“LFG China,” he also tweeted, in support of the Chinese women’s team, who needed a big win over Japan to qualify ahead of Canada. (China beat Japan 29-0 to leap ahead of the Canadians in the overall standings.)
Cudmore later deleted the tweets.
Rugby Canada reacted swiftly, sending out a response early Friday morning via social media.
“Rugby Canada stands with our women’s 7s athletes. We support the team in their efforts both on and off the rugby pitch and are proud of the way they have represented our country. Rugby Canada is aware of recent social media comments made about the team and worked to ensure they were removed as quickly as possible,” the national organization said.
“Our organizational values include solidarity and respect, and everyone on our staff is expected to help create an inclusive environment for all.”
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Rugby Canada’s senior management team decided Friday afternoon to terminate Cudmore’s employment, effective immediately.
“This decision comes as a result of a review of recent social media postings which were unacceptable and in breach of organization policy,” Rugby Canada said in a statement.
“Rugby Canada’s core values, including integrity and respect, must be exemplified in all our rugby programs and we are determined to promote a healthy, inclusive culture now and in future,” Rugby Canada board chair Sally Dennis added.
Last winter, the women’s team filed a series of complaints against former head coach John Tait, which were investigated under Rugby Canada’s harassment and bullying policies. Tait was cleared by the investigation but his position was untenable and he stepped down after more than a decade in charge of the women’s program.
Before these games began, the women spoke up about human rights issues, especially around racial and cultural inclusion and the historical treatment of Indigenous peoples in Canada, as well as the structure of their own program.
“A year ago, our team would be sitting here solely talking about the game — and the game is important to us and we are ready for that,” Charity Williams said in a pre-Games press conference. “But as we know, we are more than athletes. This is what it looks like when you decolonize your space.”
“I’ve been on this team for eight years and from my experience, I’ve never felt like there is a true place for me here. But sitting here today, I can say I trust my teammates are open to listening and learning,” she added. “My hope is our team continues a legacy of creating safe and empowering spaces and organizations across Turtle Island and the world,” she added.
Early Friday morning, ahead of Canada’s placing round game vs. Brazil — the Canadians won 45-0 — Williams responded on social media to Cudmore.
“I wanted to take this moment to talk about our performance and how proud I am of this team beyond any result. Because I am, and what we accomplished this year is far greater than one weekend. What this team stands for and who we have become means that young female athletes across Canada can play their sport and feel safe. I’m proud of that,” Williams said.
“But instead I have to sit here once again and share what we’ve been going through as a team. The consistent hatred we have received from people in our own organization. I’m only sharing because this is what we have been dealing with for months. From private texts, to public stalking online and in person. The bullying and harassment that we have received for coming forward is outrageous & scary at times. This is the reason we called for an internal investigation because we haven’t been safe,” she added. “But still, with everything, we have pushed through tears, pain, & joy, all of it to get us here. It’s not the result we wanted but we worked f—ing hard.
“Beyond all of that I want to thank those of you who have supported us thus far..we have heard you and we love you. We don’t regret a single moment and the team’s heads are all held high right now. 2 more games that we will be playing for us, the 1794 Indigenous children and counting, all the Black athletes who are only seen as valuable when they are successful and all survivors of abuse whose stories are not trusted 🧡”
New York Dems Seek to Block Chick-fil-A From State’s Rest Stops – Newsmax
Dr. Seuss? Canceled.
Old Glory? Canceled.
4th of July? Canceled.
And now…Cancel Culture’s latest victim? CHICK-FIL-A! That’s right. New York Democrats are trying to CANCEL Chick-Fil-A and BLOCK America’s beloved chicken sandwich from New York’s rest stops — all because the fast-food company is run by conservatives.
THE LATEST VICTIM OF CANCEL CULTURE: Monsignor Owen Keenan Said Residential Schools Did Much Good & is Now Under Fire from the Anti-Catholics & the Woke
Social Sharing
Clips of last Sunday’s controversial sermon widely criticized on social media
Samantha Beattie · CBC News · Posted: Jun 24, 2021 5:00 AM ET | Last Updated: June 24
Rev. Owen Keenan, a Roman Catholic priest in Mississauga, Ont., west of Toronto, gives daily mass at the Merciful Redeemer Parish on June 15, 2021. He is under fire for comments about residential schools he made in a recent sermon. (Merciful Redeemer Parish/YouTube)
A Mississauga, Ont., priest is under fire after a sermon referencing the “good done” by the Roman Catholic Church in residential schools, saying some might go so far as to even thank it.
During his sermon at the Merciful Redeemer Parish last Sunday, Monsignor Owen Keenan referenced the Kamloops, B.C., residential school where the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation reported it had discovered the preliminary remains of more than 200 children in unmarked graves in May.
“Two-thirds of the country is blaming the church, which we love, for the tragedies that occurred there,” he said on a video originally posted to the church’s YouTube page but since deleted. Clips of his sermon continue to circulate on social media.
“I presume the same number would thank the church for the good done in those schools, but of course, that question was never asked and we are not allowed to even say that good was done there. I await to see what comes to my inbox.”
‘Extremely harmful to reconciliation’
A clip of Keenan’s comments sparked outrage on social media, with one person tweeting that the priest’s comments were “really disgusting” and that “the Church is not the victim.” https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3R3ZWV0X2VtYmVkX2NsaWNrYWJpbGl0eV8xMjEwMiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJjb250cm9sIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1407034853208563719&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbc.ca%2Fnews%2Fcanada%2Ftoronto%2Fmississauga-pastor-catholic-church-residential-schools-1.6077248&sessionId=6d223c00a2342d68bbddc4c179704f7fb0073c3e&siteScreenName=cbc&theme=light&widgetsVersion=82e1070%3A1619632193066&width=550px
Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, a practising Catholic, said she was “extremely disappointed” by her pastor’s comments about residential schools.
Reading from a prepared statement at a news conference Thursday, the mayor called Keenan’s homily “deeply insensitive to Indigenous Canadians, particularly at a time when Indigenous communities are in pain as they unearth more mass graves at the sites of former residential schools.”
“His comments show a fundamental misunderstanding of one of the core tragedies of the residential school system in Canada,” she said. “The children were forcibly separated from their parents.”
Crombie said how Canada’s history has been taught obscures the truth behind what really happened: The federal government and many churches, including the Catholic Church, operated these schools for close to 150 years, committing atrocities and silencing voices forever.
“No apology from the federal government or the church will be enough to undo the havoc that was wreaked through these institutions,” Crombie said. “But an apology is where we must start. It’s a basic and it’s a fundamental foundation to our reconciliation.”
Dr. Suzanne Shoush, who is Indigenous, works for the Catholic-run health network Unity Health Toronto. She is demanding the Pope apologize for the church’s role in residential schools. She said comments like those made by Keenan are damaging to reconciliation and exemplify why Catholic leaders need to intervene.
“This is part of the reason why we keep pushing to have a formal asking of forgiveness to Indigenous people in Canada from the Pope himself,” she said.
“It’s really critical that it comes from the leadership so that we stop having these incredibly ignorant and harmful comments coming from across the church. I think that what we’re seeing is extremely harmful to reconciliation.”
An undated photo of Kamloops residential school students and a priest. (National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation)
Keenan also said in his sermon that while the church should apologize for its participation in the “ill-devised government project,” it should also wait to find out who was buried at the Kamloops site and why before “rendering ultimate judgment.”
During a mass on June 6, Keenan said the discovery was “very sad” and a symbol of the “ongoing tragedy” of government policies against Indigenous people, but also that:
“We don’t know how those children died. We don’t know, we can’t know, if they would’ve died if they stayed at home.”
While he called for prayers and reconciliation, he also said, “Many people had very positive experiences of residential schools. Many people received health care and education and joyful experiences.
“They weren’t universally awful. But there’s still no place for the horrors that are alleged to have occurred there.”
Residential school survivors have shared horrific accounts of abuse, starvation and neglect, and difficulties getting documents from the Catholic Church, which ran the majority of the schools. The final 2015 report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission begins by stating that what took place at residential schools “can be best described as ‘cultural genocide.'”
“The church actively sought to exercise exclusive control over the welfare of these children and therefore are exclusively responsible for the conditions which these children lived in,” Shoush said.
In a statement to CBC News Wednesday, Keenan defended his comments, saying that he was trying to help his congregation struggling with negative news about the church.
“I am deeply sorry, embarrassed, ashamed and shocked at the revelations of abuse, destruction and harm done in residential schools across this country,” he said in the statement. “I in no way condone the system … As a Catholic and a priest, I wish I could say ‘I’m sorry’ to everyone who suffered harm.”
The Archdiocese of Toronto said in a statement it’s been in contact with Keenan “to convey the deep pain and anger” some felt. He has “pledged to fully educate himself” about the history of residential schools.
“We apologize to anyone offended by his remarks,” the archdiocese said.
Pastor criticizes Pride flags at schools
In the same sermon, Keenan criticized Catholic schools for flying Pride flags this month, saying the church had hoped they’d show “courage” by displaying a cross or sacred heart instead. He described the Pride flag as “the standard of contemporary sexual licence” that’s replacing Catholic symbols.
Keenan did not respond to questions from CBC News about his comments toward the LGBTQ community.
Crombie said she told Keenan his comments have no place in the city of Mississauga.
Priest under fire after sermon on the ‘good done’ by Catholic Church on residential schools
Clips of last Sunday’s controversial sermon widely criticized on social media
Samantha Beattie · CBC News · Posted: Jun 24, 2021 5:00 AM ET | Last Updated: June 24
Rev. Owen Keenan, a Roman Catholic priest in Mississauga, Ont., west of Toronto, gives daily mass at the Merciful Redeemer Parish on June 15, 2021. He is under fire for comments about residential schools he made in a recent sermon. (Merciful Redeemer Parish/YouTube)
A Mississauga, Ont., priest is under fire after a sermon referencing the “good done” by the Roman Catholic Church in residential schools, saying some might go so far as to even thank it.
During his sermon at the Merciful Redeemer Parish last Sunday, Monsignor Owen Keenan referenced the Kamloops, B.C., residential school where the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation reported it had discovered the preliminary remains of more than 200 children in unmarked graves in May.
“Two-thirds of the country is blaming the church, which we love, for the tragedies that occurred there,” he said on a video originally posted to the church’s YouTube page but since deleted. Clips of his sermon continue to circulate on social media.
“I presume the same number would thank the church for the good done in those schools, but of course, that question was never asked and we are not allowed to even say that good was done there. I await to see what comes to my inbox.”
‘Extremely harmful to reconciliation’
Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, a practising Catholic, said she was “extremely disappointed” by her pastor’s comments about residential schools.
Reading from a prepared statement at a news conference Thursday, the mayor called Keenan’s homily “deeply insensitive to Indigenous Canadians, particularly at a time when Indigenous communities are in pain as they unearth more mass graves at the sites of former residential schools.”
“His comments show a fundamental misunderstanding of one of the core tragedies of the residential school system in Canada,” she said. “The children were forcibly separated from their parents.”
Crombie said how Canada’s history has been taught obscures the truth behind what really happened: The federal government and many churches, including the Catholic Church, operated these schools for close to 150 years, committing atrocities and silencing voices forever.
“No apology from the federal government or the church will be enough to undo the havoc that was wreaked through these institutions,” Crombie said. “But an apology is where we must start. It’s a basic and it’s a fundamental foundation to our reconciliation.”
Dr. Suzanne Shoush, who is Indigenous, works for the Catholic-run health network Unity Health Toronto. She is demanding the Pope apologize for the church’s role in residential schools. She said comments like those made by Keenan are damaging to reconciliation and exemplify why Catholic leaders need to intervene.
“This is part of the reason why we keep pushing to have a formal asking of forgiveness to Indigenous people in Canada from the Pope himself,” she said.
“It’s really critical that it comes from the leadership so that we stop having these incredibly ignorant and harmful comments coming from across the church. I think that what we’re seeing is extremely harmful to reconciliation.”
An undated photo of Kamloops residential school students and a priest. (National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation)
Keenan also said in his sermon that while the church should apologize for its participation in the “ill-devised government project,” it should also wait to find out who was buried at the Kamloops site and why before “rendering ultimate judgment.”
During a mass on June 6, Keenan said the discovery was “very sad” and a symbol of the “ongoing tragedy” of government policies against Indigenous people, but also that:
“We don’t know how those children died. We don’t know, we can’t know, if they would’ve died if they stayed at home.”
While he called for prayers and reconciliation, he also said, “Many people had very positive experiences of residential schools. Many people received health care and education and joyful experiences.
“They weren’t universally awful. But there’s still no place for the horrors that are alleged to have occurred there.”
Residential school survivors have shared horrific accounts of abuse, starvation and neglect, and difficulties getting documents from the Catholic Church, which ran the majority of the schools. The final 2015 report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission begins by stating that what took place at residential schools “can be best described as ‘cultural genocide.'”
“The church actively sought to exercise exclusive control over the welfare of these children and therefore are exclusively responsible for the conditions which these children lived in,” Shoush said.
In a statement to CBC News Wednesday, Keenan defended his comments, saying that he was trying to help his congregation struggling with negative news about the church.
“I am deeply sorry, embarrassed, ashamed and shocked at the revelations of abuse, destruction and harm done in residential schools across this country,” he said in the statement. “I in no way condone the system … As a Catholic and a priest, I wish I could say ‘I’m sorry’ to everyone who suffered harm.”
The Archdiocese of Toronto said in a statement it’s been in contact with Keenan “to convey the deep pain and anger” some felt. He has “pledged to fully educate himself” about the history of residential schools.
“We apologize to anyone offended by his remarks,” the archdiocese said.
Pastor criticizes Pride flags at schools
In the same sermon, Keenan criticized Catholic schools for flying Pride flags this month, saying the church had hoped they’d show “courage” by displaying a cross or sacred heart instead. He described the Pride flag as “the standard of contemporary sexual licence” that’s replacing Catholic symbols.
Keenan did not respond to questions from CBC News about his comments toward the LGBTQ community.
Crombie said she told Keenan his comments have no place in the city of Mississauga.
“He expressed his shame and remorse,” she said.
Keith Baybayon says schools help make LGBTQ students feel more included and safe by flying the Pride flag. (Jared Thomas/CBC)
LGBTQ activist Keith Baybayon, who is also a student trustee with the Toronto Catholic District School Board, said members of the Catholic Church have ramped up these kinds of comments as more Ontario school boards agree to fly Pride flags every June. The flag holds a special meaning of inclusion for the LGBTQ community that the cross doesn’t, he said.
“Flying the Pride flag can really express solidarity that the school boards have with their LGBTQ students and staff, ensuring that they belong, their voices are heard,” Baybayon said.
“We’re not taking away the cross. We’re not taking away the sacred heart. They’re all going up there to ensure that every single person is represented in our board.”
oard.”
Support Monsignor Owen Keenan’s right to free speech. Mississauga’s Merciful Redeemer Parish. Email: Pastor@mercifulredeemer.orgAddress: 2775 Erin Centre Blvd, Mississauga, ON L5M 5W2Phone: 1 (905) 812-0030
Cancel Culture Claims Another Victim — Mike Stafford
The Red Guards of cancel culture claim another victim. The longtime AM 640 radio host Mike Stafford was fired almost immediately after using what is described as a “racial slur” (probably Paki) for East Indians in a PRIVATE employee chat group. He didn’t use the term on air
Kathryn Marshall: The cancel culture mob could come looking for you, too
Due process goes out the window when it comes to cancel culture. By the time all the facts come to light, it is too lateAuthor of the article:Kathryn MarshallPublishing date:Jan 26, 2021 • 5 days ago • 3 minute read
Cancel culture is a toxic practice that we should cancel, writes Kathryn Marshall. PHOTO BY SEAN GALLUP/GETTY IMAGES
Article content
You know it is getting bad when even Mr. Bean is calling you out. In an interview earlier this month, Rowan Atkinson equated cancel culture with a “medieval mob, roaming the streets looking for someone to burn.”
It is an apt comparison.
Kathryn Marshall: The cancel culture mob could come looking for you, too
In 2015, British journalist Jon Ronson wrote a great book called “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed,” where he explored public shaming on the internet and interviewed people who had been on the receiving end of the online mob. No one could have predicted how online public shaming would mutate into the ubiquitous and toxic cancel culture that has become so powerful today.
A medieval mob, roaming the streets looking for someone to burnROWAN ATKINSON
Cancel culture doesn’t just come for celebrities and politicians. It pursues regular everyday folk, too. As an employment lawyer, I have seen my fair share of unjust terminations. One aspect of cancel culture I find particularly troubling is how the mob goes after people’s jobs. This is no trite matter. It is one thing to call someone out and shame them on online. But to attack a person’s ability to put food on the table is a line that shouldn’t be crossed. It doesn’t take much pressure from the cancel culture mob to cancel someone’s employment contract. Employers, especially large companies, are terrified of bad press and the thought of trending on Twitter for the wrong reasons is the stuff of nightmares
A few angry emails and an unsightly mention in a BuzzFeed article may be all it takes to get you cancelled at work. Forget about an investigation or proper human resources protocols — there isn’t time for that. One of cancel culture’s greatest strengths is its speed. With social media and the 24/7 news cycle, the process of cancelling a human can take mere hours.
In any other scenario where a complaint is made against an employee, there would usually be a proper investigation process undertaken by the employer that could take weeks, maybe months. The employee would be permitted to present a defence and the full context would be examined. Termination for cause, which is the capital offence of employment law, would be a last-resort option.
A statue of justice is seen outside Vancouver’s law courts. Due process goes out the window in cases of cancel culture, writes Kathryn Marshall. PHOTO BY MARK VAN MANEN/POSTMEDIA NEWS
Due process goes out the window when it comes to cancel culture. By the time all the facts come to light, it is too late. The damage has been done and the mob is onto its next victim.
If companies would just keep their nerve instead of panicking and hitting the fire button, they could avoid potential liability from unjustly fired employees. The cancel culture mob usually loses interest after a few days, but the lawsuits from terminated employees linger.
A friend once asked me, isn’t cancel culture just the product of a free market, like consumer activism? The answer is no. Cancel culture is about power and control. It is a highly effective tool that gives a self-appointed and often small mob the power to control who has and doesn’t have a platform or voice. What it takes to be cancelled is completely fluid and changes almost daily. Cancel culture is the antithesis of free speech and the enemy of due process and fairness.
Cancel culture is the antithesis of free speech and the enemy of due process and fairness
The goal isn’t just to humiliate or to shame. And it certainly isn’t to elicit an apology. The objective is to literally remove a person from every semblance of their life — personal and professional. To destroy that person’s career, influence, respect and render them so radioactive that no company, person or employer will ever want to touch them with a 10-foot pole. In other words, cancelled.
There are always stories of a cancel culture victim months later, where some reporter has dredged up all the facts and evidence and tells the full story in the proper context. You read it and think — that was really unfair. And then you go about your day, while that person has to live the rest of their life with this humiliation plastered all over the internet.
Are there some people and groups out there who deserve to be deplatformed? Of course — this has always been the case.
But do the vast majority of people who have made a mistake or said or done the wrong thing at some point in their life deserve due process and a second chance?
Yes.
Cancel culture is a toxic practice that we should cancel.
Lawyer Horst Mahler released from prison in Germany after serving 10 years
Published by carolyn on Sun, 2020-11-01 12:48
Horst
Mahler’s long-awaited release from prison was not covered by the
mainstream media. He’s one of those charismatic “heroes of the Right”
the establishment tries to “cancel.”
By Carolyn Yeager
THE
84-YEAR-OLD LAWYER WAS RELEASED FROM A PRISON IN THE EASTERN STATE of
Brandenburg on Monday afternoon, Oct. 26, a spokesman for the
Brandenburg Justice Ministry said.
He was
released under strict security conditions, which may have included ‘no
welcoming party’ because it seems there is practically a news blackout
on the whole affair.
Mahler
was jailed in 2009 after being given a 10-year-plus sentence for
“incitement to racial hatred” and for Holocaust denial — which is a
crime in Germany.
Mahler
was temporarily released in 2015 for medical reasons—he suffers from
diabetes and reportedly has had two foot-leg amputations while in prison
because of lack of exercise and inadequate diet, and is now confined to
a wheelchair. After being released in 2015, he made ‘non-permitted’
statements and traveled to Hungary where he requested political asylum.
The Hungarian authorities (under Orban) refused his request and
extradited him back to Germany where he was transferred back to prison
in 2017.
New Charges
Mahler’s freedom may be once again cut short because German authorites are already coming up with new charges against him. Prosecutors in the city of Cottbus (on the German-Polish border) say they are putting out a new arrest warrant against him for remarks published online. A spokesman for the Potsdam Regional Court announced a total of six charges for texts, writings and publications, all of which are intended to constitute an offense of sedition.
Mahler
has denounced the new charges, saying his remarks were “purely opinions”
that he has never denied. “These are contributions to the
interpretation of contemporary events on an ideological basis,” said
Mahler.
The
above information was gleaned from Deutsche Welle.com and The Teller
Report.com. I will follow up on this news as I am able to find it.
Readers’ legitimate contributions are welcome.
Ursula Haverbeck is now scheduled to be released on November 5, so we look forward to that also. Stay tuned.
“The university defends the right of its academics to express their own lawful opinions which others might find controversial and deplores in the strongest terms abuse and personal attacks”.Noble sentiments indeed, but it also happens to be a lie – and one so barefaced that it would almost be funny if it weren’t so tragic. Under a “progressive” new vice chancellor, Cambridge has led the way in appeasing the outrage mob. It has singularly failed to defend conservative academics such as the sociologist Noah Carl – summarily dismissed after an open letter from faculty members accused him of racism. It took university authorities just 48 hours to rescind Jordan Peterson’s visiting fellowship, while the students’ union claimed his “work and views” were “not representative of the student body”. Curiouser and curiouser. In claiming to value free speech (but only for certain opinions) Cambridge is guilty both of double standards, and double-think. Intolerant zealots are strangling the intellectual freedom of our univer…Academics have a duty to win the debate, not stifle it
“We deplore racism, homophobia and transphobia, and do not discriminate on any grounds. Literature is open, plural and questioning. We believe every author’s work should be approached by readers in the same spirit.”No satire could match this delicious declaration of support for openness and plurality of opinion, while sacking someone people disagreed with. Like adults who wear Crocs in public, they seem to have forgotten that we can see them.The double-think is as unsurprising as it is flagrant. Once-niche “critical theory” has infiltrated contemporary discourse, with its rejection of logic, reason and objective reality. And revolutionaries always become what they claim to abhor, like the French radicals who repressed formal religion and ended up worshipping an amorphous Cult of Reason, and replaced the judiciary with “people’s courts”. Today, we are similarly discovering what atrocities may be committed under the guise of the Rights of Man.Dominating every major wing of cultural life, small wonder that the Left feels so comfortable in its exquisite hypocrisies. Influential appointments have the ring of a cosy, quasi-incestuous club, a conveyor belt of Left-wing opinion linking Guardian editorships, heads of Oxbridge colleges, public health quangocrats and more. Readers may recall the popular game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”, in which film buffs challenge each other to find the shortest path between an arbitrary actor and the prolific Bacon. A colleague suggests a version for the quangocracy; “Six Degrees of Shami Chakrabarti”.For how long can this state of affairs continue? Being obliged to parrot propaganda and declare the sky is pink to retain your livelihood is emotionally draining. Neither is it healthy for our institutions to be so consistently out of step with public opinion, overseen by a detached cultural elite that is only occasionally roused from its perch by a disobliging election or referendum result. Few of us wish to inhabit a monoculture, and the quality of artistic output is already suffering; take the Booker Prize’s own deterioration in the literary landscape.Worst of all, it will destroy genuine progress. In liberal California, presumably to pave the way for “affirmative action” measures, the legislature has just voted to strike anti-discrimination commitments from its constitution – a development that should terrify all thinking people. Britain is never far behind America and already ours is a topsy-turvy world, in which bullies feign victimhood, discrimination masquerades as social justice and “feminist” activists use the mantle of progressivism to hound women with impunity. Truly, we are through the looking glass now.
Political
correctness, whatever its commendable origins in a wish to protect
minorities on a basis of race, sexuality, or religious belief, has come
to do great damage in its sometimes neurotic condemnation of anything
its advocates find offensive.
Among
some individuals, the word “Islamophobe” seems to have replaced the
word Communist as sort of a new form of McCarthyism with which to smear,
defame and neutralize anyone with whom one might disagree — presumably
to shut down any kind of discussion before it can even start.
While
it is appropriate to… bring in balanced Muslim opinions about how to
define “Islamophobia,” organizations with links to more radical Muslim
groupings are probably not the most helpful partners.
Without
a serious debate on these issues, no one… can engage in comprehensive
discussions about how Western societies should handle the problems of
discrimination, integration, citizenship, free speech, secular values,
human rights and all the areas of our collective lives that have come to
the fore… in recent years.
Trevor
Phillips is uniquely placed to bring light to these discussions. A
well-respected man in both British and international society, he should
never be shut down by anyone, especially for the ostensible sake of
political correctness.
For
many years now, Trevor Phillips has been one of the most prominent
individuals of black ancestry in the United Kingdom. A well-respected
man in both British and international society, he should never be shut
down by anyone, especially for the ostensible sake of political
correctness. Pictured: Phillips in 2010. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty
Images)
For many years now, Trevor Phillips OBE has
been one of the most prominent individuals of black ancestry in the
United Kingdom. He is a multitalented individual who has played
significant roles in business, politics, journalism, and more throughout
a long life (he is now 66). A full list of his achievements would take
up most of this article. Here are only a few examples:
He was,
until June 2018, the President of the John Lewis Partnership, Europe’s
largest employee-owned company. He has also Chairman of Index on Censorship,
the international campaign group for freedom of expression, and was
founding chair of both the Greater London Authority, and of Britain’s
Equality and Human Rights Commission. Originally chair of the Commission
for Racial Equality, and as head of the EHRC, Phillips was a
controversial figure: he was an opponent of multiculturalism, apparently
preferring a more constrained policy towards integration, a view he
still maintains. Although a member (until recently) of the left-wing
Labour party, he is still a senior fellow with the leading Conservative
think tank, Policy Exchange.
Shockingly, on March 9, Phillips was suspended from
the Labour Party on the grounds of “Islamophobia.” That this exclusion
is shocking should be obvious given the man’s long history of
anti-racism, principled and critical support for national
counter-terrorist laws, rejection of Islamic terrorism and
Muslim rape gangs, and his focus on faith-based integration. This
latter is discussed in his 2016 book for the Civitas think tank, Race and Faith: The Deafening Silence.
As
chairman of Index on Censorship, Phillips has a policy largely derived
from the First Amendment of the US Constitution, in order to permit
freedom of speech and the press. Although there are some restrictions in
the UK regarding hate speech and national security, free speech remains
a broad principle. It is here that Phillips apparently fell afoul of
“politically correct” criticism.
“Political correctness”, whatever
its commendable origins in a wish to protect minorities on a basis of
race, sexuality, or religious belief, has come to do great damage in its sometimes neurotic condemnation of anything its advocates find offensive.
For
many, especially, it seems. on the left, the notion of what is called
“Islamophobia” has come to the fore as the perfect expression of
politically correct speech and writing. This acceptance seems to have
taken place despite the appalling use of anti-Semitic hate speech and
anti-Jewish activism before and during the era of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of
Britain’s Labour Party. One is inclined to think of pots calling
kettles black. If the politically correct can get it so wrong about
antisemitism, may they not be equally wrong about “Islamophobia”?
It is not hard to define antisemitism if we are guided by the Working Definition given
by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, but defining
Islamophobia is fraught with difficulties. That it exists in some form,
as do most prejudices, is hardly controversial. In the UK alone, 2018
saw a record number of attacks on Muslims, sometimes, not surprisingly, in response to Muslim attacks on non-Muslims.
In
2019, an Australian, Brenton Tarrant, murdered 51 Muslims in attacks on
two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand — crimes to which he has now pled guilty.
Such attacks, and often the speech that goes with them, reflect a
deep-seated racism and bigotry that is rightly condemned across most
countries. Less violent but equally unacceptable is the persecution of its Uighur population by China’s Communist Party.
It
should go without saying that Trevor Phillips — and often many people
accused of seemingly the most innocuous transgressions, such as a
British teacher in the Sudan naming a children’s teddy bear Mohammed, or
in present-day Nigeria, simply being a Christian — bears no
resemblance to any of these.
In 2016, before the current row, Gatestone Senior Fellow Douglas Murray penned an article in the Spectator expressing
admiration for Phillips and defending him against early accusations of
Islamophobia. Yet, four years on, he has been termed an “Islamophobe” by
a major political party and many in the press.
Among some individuals, the word “Islamophobe” seems to have replaced
the word Communist as sort of a new form of McCarthyism with which to
smear, defame and neutralize anyone with whom one might disagree —
presumably to shut down any kind of discussion before it can even start.
Phillips
himself has worked alone and with colleagues on the problems
surrounding the definition of Islamophobia. In 2018, he wrote the
foreword to Policy Exchange’s response to an extremely flawed definition from the UK’s All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims. The definition had been heavily criticized, not least by the police, for undermining free speech and counter-terrorism work. Phillips supported the author, Sir John Jenkins KCMG,
who exposed the risks to free speech and a healthy democracy if the
APPG report were to become law. The following year, Phillips — with
Jenkins and Dr. Martyn Frampton — wrote for the same think tank a piece entitled, On Islamophobia: A Problem of Definition. In it, he differed materially from the views of Nathan Lean, the left-wing author of The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims, who takes even the mildest criticism of Islam or Muslims as Islamophobic in nature.
One
of the concerns expressed in Phillips’s responses to the APPG lay in
the fact that the parliamentarians involved might have allowed
themselves to be influenced too broadly by Muslim lobbies that seemed
not truly representative, such as the Muslim Council of Britain and the Muslim Engagement and Development group (MEND).
While
it is appropriate to recognize Jewish contributions to definitions of
antisemitism (such as the internationally supported IHRA version
mentioned above) and to bring in balanced Muslim opinions about how to
define Islamophobia, organizations with links to more radical Muslim groupings are
most likely not the most helpful partners. To eradicate hatred for
balanced and peace-loving Muslims, it is probably not all that
productive totally to avoid references to Islamic radicalism or issues
surrounding women’s rights, treatment of non-Muslims, prescribed
punishments, treatment of children, and blasphemy to name but a few —
which is what more traditionalist Muslims might prefer we did.
Without
a serious debate on these issues, no one — from schools to political
parties, think tanks, parliaments, churches and synagogues — can engage
in comprehensive discussions about how Western societies should handle
the problems of discrimination, integration, citizenship, free speech,
secular values, human rights and all the areas of our collective lives
that have come to the fore with the revival of radical and
traditionalist Islam in recent decades.
Trevor Phillips is
uniquely placed to bring light to these discussions. A well-respected
man in both British and international society, he should never be shut
down by anyone for the ostensible sake of political correctness.
Following Labour’s condemnation of Phillips as a supposed “Islamophobe”, Policy Exchange published another piece The Trial: The strange case of Trevor Phillips,
again by Frampton, in which he dissected the charge raised against
Phillips. In the end, it appears that however many enemies Phillips may
have, he is assured of having many friends. This conclusion is reflected
in that the UK government has just appointed him as an advisor to a formal inquiry into the disproportionate number of deaths from Covid-19.
Dr.
Denis MacEoin is a former British university lecturer in Islamic
Studies and a Distinguished Senior Fellow with the Gatestone Institute.
According to a story in The Globe and Mail yesterday (“Ontario
Liberals to change rules, lower fees to ensure more female
candidates”), the Ontario Liberal Party has set a goal to become “the
most open and equitable party in Canada”, and they have a plan to
achieve that end.
Their plan is to increase the percentage of female candidates they
field in the next Ontario provincial election to at least 50% of the
party total by launching an aggressive search campaign, lowering
registration fees for women only, and—if necessary—having only women
run in the nominations.
I believe there’s a lesson in this for the Conservative
Party of Canada: this is NOT how to do things.
Merit, and merit alone, should be the primary
criteria when considering someone for a job, including the job of
running for political office.
We should judge people on the quality of their talents and
on the soundness of their ideas, not on their sex, colour, age,
religion, or anything else.
And who should evaluate the merit? The local party members,
in a democratic vote! Not the bureaucrats at CPC HQ!
Ontario Liberal Kate Graham has said that having more women in
elected politics “leads to better decisions”. She’s wrong.
Electing better decision-makers will lead to better decisions, and
we can’t assume someone’s ability to make decisions is based on their
sex or race or religion, etc.
Letting identity politics trump actual ideas will lead to a
stagnant culture and stifling lack of innovation. Eventually, it will
destroy our democratic institutions.
Related to this, I was disappointed to hear Leslyn Lewis speak of a
desire for “equality of outcomes” during the leadership debate.
This sounds like Leslyn Lewis might actually support
affirmative action, which I hope is not the case.
The idea that we can ensure equality of outcomes necessarily
involves rigging the game—like the Ontario Liberal Party is doing—and
letting merit take a back seat. At its heart, the very idea of
“equality of outcome” is a socialist concept.
That’s why, in the debate, I corrected Dr. Lewis in asserting the
non-socialist idea we must pursue, which is to provide equality of
opportunity for all. Is Leslyn Lewis for any form of
affirmative action either in government or in CPC candidate
recruitment? You should ask her—and Peter MacKay and Erin
O’Toole as well, for that matter.
But there is more to it than simply banning the practice of
“affirmative action”. We also need to “cancel” the “cancel culture” in
our party.
The CPC has, in the recent past, “cancelled” the
nominations of candidates because of their ideas. In this leadership
contest, for example, Richard Décarie and Jim Karahalios were both
disqualified from the current leadership race because of positions
they expressed.
There are numerous other examples of conservative-minded and other
freedom-loving party members being denied the opportunity to
seek local CPC nominations in the 2019 Federal election. No
wonder thousands of CPC members have already defected to Maxime
Bernier’s PPC.
In allowing the “cancel culture” to spread, our Party has
not acted any better than the Ontario Liberal Party is planning to
act by enforcing a candidate quota based on sex. The
Conservative Party of Canada, if the name means anything, should set a
perfect example in promoting free expression.
“Diversity” doesn’t consist of people of different sexes,
religions, and races bound to express one narrow set of acceptable
beliefs. True diversity entails a real variety of ideas expressed and
debated in political parties and in the public square.
As Leader of the CPC, I will promote true diversity of
ideas, both in Canadian society and in our Party.
Principled conservatives will no longer be “cancelled” at any level
of the CPC, even if their ideas fall outside of the increasingly
narrow scope of those tolerated by the “Red Tory” faction of our
Party.
The triumph of identity politics has no place in the truly
diverse CPC and Canada that we should all strive to promote. Under my
leadership, there will be no “affirmative action” for local
nominations, and no “cancel culture” either.
If you support merit over identity politics, please donate
today to help our campaign continue to advance truly conservative
ideas.
