Today the Free Speech Union of Canada officially launched its website fsucanada.ca, and it is my distinct honour (forcing Substack to use Canadian spelling here) to be its inaugural Chairman of the Board.
As any of you who read me regularly know, free speech is an issue of great importance for me, and I am essentially a free speech absolutist. It also became clear to me in the past year or so how tenuous this right currently is in Canada. For example, the current Government tabled an Online Hate Bill that I have written about, that is chilling in its intent. If this bill were to become law, if someone suspects you are likely to engage in any form of speech they might interpret as hate speech online, and if they complain, the Government would have the right, essentially, to shut down your social media access.
When I have told others about this, they always bring up Minority Report, the Tom Cruise science fiction film in which criminals are apprehended before they commit crimes because technology that foretells the future labels them as future offenders. But the Online Hate Bill is in many ways worse. First, what people may be shut down for, in a reasonable democracy, should not be considered a crime. Second, to give a mere unsubstantiated and perhaps even anonymous accusation this kind of legal weight is ridiculous.
This proposed legislation is just one of the more egregious examples of efforts to restrict speech, including politically incorrect speech, that some may find offensive. So, when Toby Young contacted a group of us last year to explore whether we might consider forming a Free Speech Union in Canada to partner with the Free Speech Unions in UK, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere, I was quite eager to become involved.
The non-partisan, non-profit membership organisation dedicated to the defence of free speech in Canada. It will engage in numerous activities. It will lobby to defeat anti-free speech legislation like the Online Hate Bill, and will actively promote public events and discussions designed to defend free speech. It will provide resources that members and others can use to understand their free speech rights and the potential impact of free speech violations, and it will work to help defend free speech rights of members, including in some cases helping individuals with possible legal battles, including providing legal representation.
Funds for FSU Canada will come from donations and membership dues. I long for the day when the organisation will become unnecessary and irrelevant. But until then, this new beginning, with a great board, working with Executive Director Lisa Bildy, marks an important first step to fight the dangerous erosion of one of the most important rights that citizens in a democracy should have.
Lawrence M. Krauss is a theoretical physicist, the President of the Origins Project Foundation, and the author, most recently of The Edge of Knowledge: Unsolved Mysteries of the Cosmos. He serves as the Chairman of Free Speech Union of Canada. He blogs at Critical Mass on Substack.
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Morning all , my tech skills are Zilch I’m afraid so I can’t post links !!. If I could I would put IVOR CUMMINS talk he’s just done in Southampton called “How the World is Run” onto here ! I URGE you all to watch it ( Mogs I raised it yesterday ) It’s clear & Concise ! It puts everything into perspective . Let’s have a chat about it later 👍
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6ooqNaj4rw
Cheers 👍 What do you think of Ivor’s presentation 🤔
He is always very good.
This is a bit too long for me.
I prefer to read rather than listen….
But he is, as usual, on the money.
LOL, I was just about to post something but Monro beat me to it. But I think mine isn’t the one you meant, not watched it either;
https://twitter.com/FatEmperor/status/1765361884641845527
Thanks , this is the same presentation so have a look if you get 5 👍
Hope And Freedom Not Woke Tyranny – latest leaflet to print at home and deliver to neighbours or forward to politicians, including your local Reform candidate, your local vicar, media and friends online.
Too right, but unfortunately ‘conservative’ has become a dirty word even with a small ‘c’.
This is because the Conservative party should be charged with crimes under the Trades Description Act. They have CONSERVED NOTHING: not our country, not our borders, not our heritage, not our culture, not our laws, not our economy, not our freedom of speech, not even our freedom of thought in the woke crapfest that gives more rights to men pretending to be women than real XX women. Woe betide anyone who mentions this publicly.
The Tories have been too busy trying to be faux-socialists, globalists and multiculturalist cowards to conserve anything of what used to be Britain. Instead of cleaning up Bliar’s filthy mess they have compounded it.
That is why they’re heading for a meltdown. Maybe they need a few years in the political wilderness to find themselves again. Or maybe they’re finished altogether.
Putin must now realise he’s been fighting the wrong war
Afghanistan has once more become a base for global terror attacks. Well done (not) President Biden.
No question that the Moscow terrorist attack was ISIS-K
‘Reports in Russia suggested the four main assailants detained by the FSB on Saturday were all from Tajikistan, a central Asian country whose citizens make up a large proportion of the members of Isis-K, according to analysts who monitor the group.’
‘Isis’s media channel Amaq published a gruesome video late on Saturday that was apparently filmed by one of the attackers. In it, a gunman can be seen shooting in the hallway of the auditorium at bodies on the floor, while another attacks people with a knife’
Polina Ivanova
‘Isis-K has planned several attacks in Europe in recent months but they were foiled…..’It’s about the convenience of the target.’……Previously the FSB focused almost entirely on the Islamist terror threat but since 2022, the majority of its statements have related to Ukraine.
Vera Mironova, Davis Center, Harvard University
Isis-K launched a suicide attack against the Russian embassy in Kabul in September 2022…….“Isis-K has even rolled out a Russian-language propaganda wing,”
Lucas Webber, MilitantWire
Many of those members come from Tajikistan, Mironova said — a poor country where large numbers of people travel to Russia as migrant workers. “In the Isis doctrine, Russia is as bad as the US, China and Iran,”
Asfandyar Mir, Institute for Peace.
“Russian foreign policy has been one big red flag for ISIS [ISIL]……..The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Russian actions in Chechnya, Moscow’s close relationships with the Syrian and Iranian governments, and especially the military campaigns that Russia has waged against ISIS fighters in Syria and — through Wagner Group mercenaries – in parts of Africa.”
Michael Kugelman, Wilson Centre
“Russia’s engagement in the global fight against ISIS and its affiliates, especially through its military operations in Syria and its efforts to establish connections with the Afghan Taliban – ISIS-K’s rival – marks Russia as a key adversary for ISIS/ISIS-K,”
Prof. Amira Jadoon Clemson University
A brand new, comprehensive face-recognition system across Moscow that has been widely used to identify opposition protesters also failed to stop Friday’s attack.
And it took authorities an hour and a half to deploy special forces to the site in the Moscow suburb of Krasnogorsk because of heavy traffic jams.
“Where are the helicopters for speedy deployment to critical sites in the metropolitan conditions of Moscow? Where are the armed vehicles? Where are these pumped-up stern guys from [promotional] videos?” Mitrokhin (Nikolay Mitrokhin, research fellow at Germany’s University of Bremen) asked.
“We know where they are – burned down with their vehicles on the roads of the Kyiv region, sitting in underground holes near Donetsk or patrolling the Luhansk region … not where the real danger is but there the crazy president decided to wage a war,” he said.
Yep, and here are their evil mugs, looking like they’ve walked into a few doors. We all know the IDF would show Hamas scum they’d captured more mercy and better treatment then they’ll receive in Russia. I watched videos of them slicing a man’s throat repeatedly and they methodically just mowed innocent people down, including children, like they were playing Laser Quest. Sick, callous, vile dirtbags that deserve all they get;
”Moscow islamist terrorists appear in court.
One is literally unconscious in a wheelchair and the others are visibly banged up, with one having his ear sliced off and fed to him in a video circulating online.
If this treatment had been dished out by the IDF, there would be global protests, calls for ceasefire, and a case lodged at the ICJ.
137 people were killed, including three children, and more than 150 injured.”
https://twitter.com/MarkWRowley/status/1772138520112673068
The thing about Putin’s Russia (and the country under any of its leaders I suppose) is that they are quite unselfconscious about their brutality to attackers and it gets shown on TV. If those vile killers were on a ‘suicide mission’ I bet they’re now wishing they really were dead. Serves them right.
But how many of the Leftard anti-Semites whining about Israel’s justified retaliation against hamas rapists, kidnappers and killers will be off to Russia to protest about the terrible treatment of the isis scum?
Nah, London is a much nicer, safer venue to dump their manufactured outrage than Moscow. And the Met police are SO co-operative, arresting anyone who dares to protest that hamas is a terrorist group – as defined by the government, not to mention tear-gassing Tommy Robinson just for turning up.
Who performed the atrocity in Moscow is now clear so the question is who organized it. Both the US and UK consulates in Moscow warned their citizens in early March that a terrorist attack on a concert was imminent, apparently without directly informing their Russian colleagues. A concert at the same location (Crocus City Hall) around the time of the warning was heavily policed, so much so that it is postulated the terrorists may have postponed their attack.
Since the terrorists were heading towards the Ukrainian border when their car was stopped, it appears possible that the whole business may have been organized by Ukraine: somebody chose the venue, somebody sought and found the killers, somebody supplied the weapons and transport, somebody provided the cash.
In view of the recent New York Times article explaining that the CIA had a dozen or so secret sites on the Russian/Ukrainian border, training Ukrainians in subversive operations against Russia, one wonders if the CIA was involved in the Crocus City Hall attack. Ex-CIA operatives certainly think it is possible here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uLiE1NsL1A.
The recently publicized telephone conversation of German Air Force officials discussing the transfer of Taurus missiles to Ukraine, pointed out that German troops were necessary to operate the missile system. Does the same apply to UK’s Storm Shadow missiles? Does that mean that British forces at least assisted in firing a Storm Shadow at the market in Donetsk a few weeks ago? Were the British (MI6) also involved in the Crocus City Hall attack? I certainly hope not.
Was UK among the first countries to offer their condolences to Russia for the terrorist attack? I hope so.
It was a false flag by Putin, to distract the world from the massive election fraud videos of ballot boxes being stuffed in Russia.
Believe what you will, but the ISIS video of the attack makes the idea of Ukrainian involvement look a bit silly.
Also:
‘Meduza, an independent Russian-language site based in Latvia, reported state media employees saying that there had been an order to emphasise “traces” of Ukrainian involvement.’
Oh! ‘State media employees’ no doubt randomly posting nonsense on stilts……..
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1881128/England-kit-Nike-FA-rainbow
FGS – rainbow logos 😡😡😡 sick of the sight – and site – of them.
Rainbows have been downgraded to the ideological and political equivalent of tatty tinsel instead of being a beautiful natural phenomenon.
The Islamisation of the West isn’t multiculturalism. It’s a take over by a single mono culture.
Not that Islam is mono, though. Sunni versus Shia, e.g.
“Mono” is correct, because they both worship KaliAllah the Moon Spider Goddess of Death and her Toyboy Shiva/Satan.
Yeah, the only real hope is that they’ll start an internal war and cancel each other out. Preferably in the 52 or so izlamic countries from which migration to the West aka hijrah* should be banned.
*hijrah = migration of muzlims to spread izlam through numbers. For those who can’t serve izlam as jihadis.
A couple of points:
1. There’s money for Ukraine, there’s money for migrants, there’s money for people who don’t want to work. In fact there’s money for everyone except the taxpayer themselves. The economy is the target of a controlled demolition.
2. Of course women shouldn’t be entitled to more money. Equality isn’t a one-sided ticket. Incidentally, I took a day off last week and found myself in the cafe of a garden centre mid afternoon. I was surprised to find it absolutely packed. Packed full of working-age women who looked to have taken early retirement. Early retirement whilst their partners haven’t. More proof of the traumatic lives created by the horrible patriarchy. Still, nice to eat some cake in the afternoon. Always the cake.
Come off it, Free Lemming, let them eat cake…
I haven’t followed this debate – I’m not old enough for it to have impacted me but I guess the thinking might be that they would have not worked in paid employment and therefore paid into a pension fund? Being a mother isn’t much valued by society in terms of being paid to do it but it is quite an important job nonetheless.
Regarding the last verse of the far right song video, I’ve noticed very recently – last two or three years – that far more people are seeking diagnoses for conditions such as ADHD, autism etc. I’m in two minds about this – why this, why now is always a good question.
Personally, I think the heavy childhood vaccine schedule combined with glyphosate (see Stephanie Seneff’s excellent book on glyphosate before dismissing this) and other environment toxins plus the general change in what childhood actually looks like – for generations up to the 1990s, kids would play outside, climb trees etc without constant adult supervision have all contribued to this gob smacking increase in developmental delays such as autism.
However, I can’t shake the feeling that the mental toll of the last few years has led people who wouldn’t otherwise have sought a diagnosis to seek one? It does seem to me that people I would never have suspected of having autism are telling me they’ve just got a diagnosis. Is this just me or have others noticed this?
Dr. Kulvinder Kaur Gil is the Canadian paediatrician who was ordered to pay $ 300K in legal fees after her trial for tweeting about lockdowns and vaccines.
a crowdfunding platform was started and $197 K was raised. Musk then offered to make up the difference.
I heard Spain has banned Telegram?
They should ban tiktok as well before the younger generations’ brains turn to mush.
“Police Scotland admits that a plan to stop investigating all crimes risks helping criminals”
My suspicions are correct! we have slipped through a portal into another dimension, somewhere even stranger than Alice’s wonderland! The police these days ought to be wearing top hats with 10/6 labels poking out the band instead of helmets!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/03/23/fujitsu-digital-id-cards-contract-horizon-scandal/
Digital ID by the back door to address a problem that barely exists. The excuses are bullshit.
Fujitsu? Fishy looking after father-in-law. Such a thoughtful little boy.
“Fujitsu to win digital ID cards contract despite Horizon scandal”
“Fujitsu is a partner of Infosys. Infosys is owned by PM Sunak’s wife’s family.
Gillian Keegan’s husband was the CEO of Fujitsu
Tory gov gave £4.9B contracts to Fujitsu post-Horizon scandal, Sunak alone accounted for £3.6B.”
“The overlapping personnel between Fujitsu, Infosys and the upper echelons of the Conservative Party is no coincidence. This is what 40 years of neoliberalism has done to democracy.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13232037/England-flag-looks-like-Nike-Fans-display-giant-St-Georges-Cross-amid-row-woke-kit.html
Pretty much as I predicted. I will take some smug satisfaction in this news item.
“Something tells me that the England games at Euro ’24 will be awash with traditional England shirts and flags with a healthy dose of Union Jack’s on top.”
Posted 22nd March.
“I wonder if Nike would care to provide a full size version of their revised flag just so that the non footballing public can have sight of this monstrosity? And the Football Association should be charged with a hate crime at the very least. Might as well get Govey’s garbage off on the right foot – 😀 … think about it.”
Posted 23rd March.
Nike can’t provide an oversize flag but the fans can. A real flag too.😀
Good stuff, HP. Nike can take a hike. I’m pleased to say I don’t possess one Nike item and if I did I would probably burn it in front of the FA HQ. Phuckers!
Thanks Aethelred 👍
Dan Hannan says “The question of whether women born in the 1950s are “entitled” to extra money is beside the point. We’ve run out of cash, says Dan Hannan in the Telegraph.” yet the government he supports can find large amounts for all the favoured groups in society and those who come here from societies overseas.
Governments mishandled the change in OAP entitlement ages and compensation should be paid. If you really feel a jesture should be made to the difficulty in funding it, take the cash out of the salaries and pensions of DHSS executives and managers who screed up, along with their political masters (sic).
Hannan thinks he’s a radical thinker. The reality is he is a bullshiter ready to hop on the nearest slightly outre topic.
The arrogant tosspot George Osborne bragged how he robbed millions of women of their pensions, saying it was the easiest thing ever done to save money (…so it could be squandered later on scamdemics, lockdowns, and wars and stuff).
https://youtu.be/ATSyOAAYNxc?si=kQgGLo5D8REdLOgc
The main argument from women is the lack of appropriate notice of the changes, the impact and the escalation of the timeframe to implement the changes. The later age change to the state pension then affected men, too. The government expectation is that the plebs work until they drop, preferably dead.
Your last sentence is spot on. In the old days, men passed away before or soon after retirement, leaving the government quids in, pocketing the years of pension contributions without having to pay out.
Now the government are annoyed that the peasants are living longer, usually with plenty of years to actually enjoy the retirement pensions they worked hard for and paid into all their lives. That’s where the clotshots came in handy, so the government could keep all the pension money and spend it on the Imported Muslim Army.
I’ve always thought that men should have the same retirement age as women, especially since women statistically outlive men by many years. Not one feminist shrieking about “equality” ever said that it was unfair that men had to work five years longer than women, for no apparent reason.
“Leo Varadkar vs. the people”
Unfortunately, his replacement Simon Harris had this to say about the Indigenous Irish protesting against the Fake Refugee Men attacking Irish women and children last year:
“Groups gathering in the streets calling for the removal of migrants from the Republic, shouting “Get them out”, were not “protestors” and were more akin to an intimidating mob, Minister for Justice Simon Harris has said.
“It irks when it’s called protest because some of what we’ve seen has been thuggish, mobbish, intimidatory behaviour,” he said. “I don’t think it’s protest in the view of any decent person of sound mind.”
So “The Who” are again proven right:
“Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. We won’t get fooled again…”
“Everyone, yes everyone, is far right’
Absolutely brilliant video by Dominic Frisby— it really made me laugh.
Well done to Elon Musk for tweeting it to give it a wide audience.
“Fans display giant St. George’s Cross amid row over ‘woke’ kit”
Turns out it was actually a Sikh named Navin Singh who was responsible for approving the destruction of the England flag on that kit, and then he scarpered, failing upward to become Chief Commercial Officer at Six Nations Rugby. Sikhs don’t normally play rugby for fear of their turbans getting knocked off, as they do in any kind of battle, so why he was chosen remains a mystery.