[R-G] Pretty soon psychiatrists will be the only people qualified to report the news

[Sid Shniad]

http://www.ottawasun.com/News/Columnists/Harris_Michael/2009/04/03/8985241.html 

Ottawa Sun                                                                                                                  April 3, 2009 

We're good at saying nothing 

By Michael Harris 

Pretty soon psychiatrists will be the only people qualified to report the news. 

As the planet goes slowly insane, we were treated this week to a sorry vignette from the lunatic villas of our own country. George Galloway was finally and officially refused entry into Canada. The bureaucratic reason was that the British MP is a security threat.-What was he planning to do, kick a Mountie in the shins, sneak into a hockey game without a ticket?- 

The real reason is that he opposes this country's one-sided policy with respect to Palestine and the war in Afghanistan.- 

Galloway did have a few supporters though, including Conrad Black, who now covers the Inmate Beat for the National Post. Black wrote that although Galloway was "a magnificent absurdity" he would provide good "entertainment" value if allowed in. 

Now that Conrad has made such a fine contribution to the Post, readers are wondering: Are theatre reviews from Garth Drabinsky next, perhaps investment tips from Bernie Madoff? Maybe Martha Stewart could do a nice behind-the-bars feature after taking the boys some home-made cookies? 

While we were denying free speech to a five-times elected British MP, we were extending it to a convicted felon who renounced his Canadian citizenship before being caught with his entire body in the corporate cookie jar.And there is this little item for those who think Galloway really is a security threat. We gave security clearance and a job to a guy at one of our airports who was straight out of the Sopranos. As Auditor General Sheila Fraser pointed out, this choirboy was being investigated for a murder related to drug smuggling at a major airport! But rest easy. We would surely have weeded him out if he had planned on giving a speech. 

No, George was just too much of an embarrassment to Canada's shameful behaviour toward the Palestinian people. After 1,453 of them were slaughtered in Gaza by the Israeli Defence Forces, including more than 400 women and children, Canada had nothing to say about it. 

We had nothing to say about it when the United Nations condemned Israel for its super-violent Gaza operation, noting the verified reports of Israeli abuses were "too numerous to list." 

We had nothing to say when Israeli newspapers published accounts of IDF soldiers who reported that there was a "permissive" attitude toward killing civilians during the assault. As one IDF squad commander put it in the New York Times, "What I felt was, there was a lot of thirst for blood." 

We had nothing to say about it when the Israeli military was forced to condemn as "unacceptable" shocking images printed on T-shirts ordered by some IDF recruits to commemorate the end of basic training.- As was reported at the time, "One of them bore the image of a pregnant Arab woman with a bull's-eye superimposed on her belly, along with the slogan, '1 shot, 2 kills.'" 

The Israeli army condemned the practice, sort of: "This type of humour is unacceptable. Commanders are instructed to use disciplinary tools against those who produce T-shirts of this type."- Humour? 

As for Afghanistan, where our soldiers are dying so that certain sectors of that society may legally rape their wives, George might have had a few things to say about the kind of democracy we are spreading so sanctimoniously. 

I look forward to that great champion of free speech, Jason Kenney, demolishing this troublesome fellow in a public debate. 

Sorry. April 1 was Wednesday.