Why do the CONs hate our veterans and our troops?

Actions speak louder than words; the Harper Regime©™ plans to slash and burn programs and services for Canadian veterans.

“While in Charlottetown last week, VAC staff informed me that because they did their job ‘too well’ and had too many veterans coming to the office for service, the federal government was closing the Charlottetown District office,” Stoffer said in a statement. “They were told to direct more veteran clients to the toll-free phone service and the internet.”

From here.

As well, human resources providing assistance with regard to suicide prevention and PTSD care for veterans of Afghanistan will be MASSIVELY reduced. From here:

[...] the Department of National Defence was cutting the jobs of medical professionals involved in suicide prevention and PTSD monitoring — despite claims by DND and the Canadian Forces that dealing with such health issues is a priority. Two unions have been informed by DND of the job cuts. DND has not commented on the cuts but sources confirmed the positions will be eliminated.

At the same time, the newspaper obtained an internal report for senior military officers at CFB Petawawa warning that emotionally damaged Afghanistan war veterans at the base are being neglected by a mental health treatment system that is in “crisis.”

‘MacKay loves to wrap himself in the military flag and as long as these guys are healthy’
The report was written by a group of civilian clinicians who provide much of the care to hundreds of mentally ill soldiers from the base.

It describes a system that is poorly funded, devoid of forward planning, scrambling to provide even basic care and leaving mentally ill, often-suicidal soldiers waiting four months or more before a psychiatrist or psychologist is available to treat them.

Unsurprisingly, the Minister for National Defense, Peter MacKay did nothing to ensure these vital services for veterans are maintained.

More Contempt from the Cons

It's predictable that cowardly MinJKenney would go into attack mode to cover up the mendacity and hypocrisy of his Contempt Party government.

The Con politician who, like his master PMSHithead micro-manages every detail of his realm, takes cover behind bureaucrats who refused to approve a visa application from Sayed Shah Sharifi.

From here:

Sharifi is baffled by the department’s claims that his narrative has been inconsistent, insisting that he provided the same details before and after he was told he had preliminary approval for a visa, pending the standard medical and security checks.

The interview on July 21 was the final hurdle. Sharifi says he was asked odd questions by the Canadians, who identified themselves as civilian “immigration intelligence officers.”

“They told me, ‘We saw your articles on thestar.com,’” he said. “Did you pass (the visa screening) just by your articles in thestar.com or did you help us, the Canadians?’ So I showed them 13 letters and certificates from Canadian officials.

“They asked me questions from my childhood to yesterday,” Sharifi added. “And I provided them complete, perfect answers.[...]

So we are left with the judgment of Kenney’s anonymous officials and the word of an Afghan interpreter — one praised by his Canadian military supervisors as exceptional for his honesty, work ethic and leadership.

There's a depth and stink of moral corruption here that belies all of Kenney's pious religious bleating.

Like other islamophobes, it's clear he believes the only *good* Moslems are dead ones, killed by the Taliban.

Is Don Cherry Pro-War?

Yup.

From 2003, CBC deletes clip of Cherry and MacLean arguing about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Afterwards, Cherry spoke on a radio show:

"You have to realize the CBC is government owned," Cherry said on the program, which is broadcast throughout the United States and Canada. "You have to say the government was against it (the war) and I'm for it and I'm on a government program. I really thought this could be the end."

h/t Art Bodger at Hockey Fans for Peace page. Different from group. Confusing.

So, to all those defenders of Sour Grapes saying he 'just' supports the troops -- you are wrong.

Don Cherry is pro-war.

ADDED: Fake Don Cherry weighs in.

MORE: Twatsy weighs in to say that members of the group are actual Communists. Now how does he know that? Would that be defamation, do you think?

$150K Squirt/Photo Op

Around the blogosphere and twitosphere, JimBobby has been wondering what that ejaculation missile firing by Sour Grapes cost us.

The answer is supplied by Robert McClelland in the comments here.

From the CBC a couple of years ago:

Canadian army gunners in Afghanistan are now cleared to fire new GPS-guided artillery shells at Taliban militants at a cost of $150,000 a round.

Then, there's what lindsaymstewart said on the matter:

Don Cherry is now an unlawful combatant worthy of the same fair treatment afforded Omar Khadr.

Peter 'Airshow' McKay should be fired. Sour Grapes should be IGNORED.

Amateur Show

Sweet Babee Jay-Zeus!

It would appear that Afghanistan has officially become the 21st century's version of an African safari, providing a golden photo opportunity for hackneyed politicians and melagomanic circus performers to compensate for their shortcomings when required to get it up without the assistance of pharmaceuticals.

Don Cherry should go back to *only* shooting off his big fat ignorant mouth. Less likelihood of carnage and collateral damage.

Lying Liars as Mentors and Role Models.

Who knew that our very own undeclared emperor Stevie the First has the occasional moment of modesty and self-effacement?

DJ! has concluded that there's a second training program unfolding in Afghanistan, one that Harper's New©™ Government has had to keep MASSIVELY hush-hush for security reasons.

Since we don't know what the ReformaTory name is for this program, we'll call it the Lying Liars' Mentoring Program for Politicians.

While Karzai could certainly teach Stevie a thing or two about bald-faced lying, the Nouveaux Cons©™ have much to share about systemic obfuscations and fabrications.

More about that other training mission which Stevie Peevie's Politburo, aka the PMO, is promoting.

What Do (Third World) Women Want? Part 2

Let's do some more listening to what women in the Third World want.

In Burkina Faso, there is new commitment to improving obstetric care and family planning.

As many as six women die every day in the West African country Burkina Faso as a result of pregnancy or childbirth. Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world, and human rights group, Amnesty International, says it is the country's poor, rural women whose lives are most in danger.

Amnesty International issued a report last month that pointed to poverty and shortages of supplies and trained medical staff as well as corruption and gender discrimination as the underlying causes for high rates of maternal death in Burkina Faso.

A 2005 law gives Burkinabé women the right to choose how many children they will have and when they will have them, and government subsidies introduced in 2006 sharply reduced the cost of childbirth.

But Amnesty International found that many women do not know about their right to family planning and that poorly paid medical personnel continue to ask for informal payments with impunity.

(snip)

The Burkinabé government also committed Friday to lifting financial barriers to family planning services, which Amnesty International says can save lives by preventing unwanted pregnancies, pregnancies that are too close together and unsafe, illegal abortions.

Wiki says it is 60% Muslim but calls it 'ethnically integrated, secular'. So, at least they don't have civil war and ethnic strife to deal with.

They're trying to raise the status of women there, but still need help.

Amnesty International has also encouraged international donors to continue their support of the Burkinabé government in ensuring the availability and accessibility of adequate reproductive care for women in Burkina Faso.

Now, let's go to Afghanistan where Motherhood Steve's government is more anti-choice than the mullahs.

Some mullahs in Afghanistan are distributing condoms. Others are quoting the Quran to encourage longer breaks between births. Health experts say contraception is starting to catch on in a country where one in eight women dies during pregnancy.

Afghanistan has one of the world's highest fertility rates, averaging more than six babies per woman despite years of war and a severe lack of medical care. Awareness of, and access to, contraceptives remains low among many couples, with UNICEF estimating 10 percent of women using some form of birth control.

But use of the pill, condoms and injected forms of birth control rose to 27 percent over eight months in three rural areas — up to half the woman in one area — once the benefits were explained one-on-one by health workers, according to the report published Monday in Bulletin, the World Health Organization's journal.

Canada's goal in Afghanistan is allll about the girls and women, right?

Just not the contraception, family planning, and access to safe abortion parts that saves women's lives, eh, Steve?

BONUS: Antonia Z has some choice (hee) words for Motherhood Steve's policy.

Gastropods Unite!

Go read Dr Dawg. He's on top of current events in the House of Commons. Her Majesty's loyal Opposition has roused itself from a 14 week slumber (okay, part of that was Stevie Peevie's Prorogation delay tactic). The speaker must respond to the question: Shall Parliamentary supremacy be upheld?

And also: Kady O'Malley updates directly from the warzone.

Oh and could someone run over to the Manning Centre for the Subversion Study of Democracy or whatever it's called to poke Captain Canada Stephen Taylor? I hear today's lunch in the cafeteria is the Gastropods All-you-can-eat Buffet; it seems that Taylor is known for a trademark thrust-and-parry with his snail fork. He might want to know what's happening in Parliament instead of waiting for the Coles Notes version from Dimitri Soudas.

- / - / -

fern hill piles on: W00t!!!!!!!11 I was watching at Kady's and the CAPP Facebook wall.

If you're feeling a little euphoric -- as I am -- by this stunning display of backbone on the part of the Opposition, now might be a good time to celebrate by sending some money to the totally grassroots group Canadians Rallying to Unseat Stephen Harper, or CRUSH, here.

One of the organizers just wrote on the CAPP wall:

This Saturday, in the Insight section of the Toronto Star, our ad will appear. It is the largest ad we could afford in the largest circulated paper....

Without all your faith and support this ad would not have happened. Your kind words in your messages are touching and give us more energy. The first small battle has been won but the war is far from over. We can do this...together.

As one donor wrote to Billy Nobels, "I cannot trust my government but I am trusting a complete stranger with my $20.00 donation".

Frank Iacobucci and the Ides of March.

There is really no reason why former Supreme Court Justice Iacobucci would accept the Harper mission.

Except for the munnee - though various descriptions of his illustrious career indicate he made an early decision to forgo a lucrative practice of corporate law in Manhattan in favour of education and public service.

Surely the former judge knows that the theocratic ReformaTory government and its bullies are trying to buy time in order to delay any scrutiny regarding their actions on the Afghanistan detainee procedures as well as to purchase Iacobucci's credibility?

He'd do well to remember the words of Julius Caesar's wife, uttered on this fateful day, over 2,000 years ago.

"Don't go there, Franky, don't go!" - paraphrased ever so slightly from this famous Wayne & Shuster skit.



Enjoy life, Frank. Avoid the aggravation this inquiry will bring you.

Have a martinus. What the hell ... have two!

Out of the mouths of blabbing rightwing idiots.

"We need an election to get rid of most of the opposition, non party status for the libs would be nice." As Canadian Cynic: The unbearable inconvenience of dissenting viewpoints and Sister Sage - Oh my, Mary T, Are You Lobbying for a ….Totalitarian Regime? - point out, that perspective is likely at the heart of the ReformaTory agenda. Eliminationism Nation - wipe out all opposition.

And about that "tough on crime" propaganda that the Con jobs are so fundamentally fond of promoting: when will the RCMP arrest the Prime Suspect Minister Harper for his illegal machinations and complicity in torture?

The pic? Not from last evening's Best/Worst Dressed at the Oscars©™.

The Kents on Recalibration

I don't think that word -- paraphrase -- means what you think it does.

Peter Kent backs down on his whoring remark. (And I mean no disrespect to honest sex-workers.)

In an interview published in Shalom Life, dated Feb. 12, Mr. Kent said: “Prime Minister Harper has made it quite clear for some time now and has regularly stated that an attack on Israel would be considered an attack on Canada.”

Mr. McIntosh pointed to Mr. Harper’s statements from May, 2008, marking the 60th anniversary of Israel, where the Prime Minister said: “Our government believes that those who threaten Israel also threaten Canada, because, as the last world war showed, hate-fuelled bigotry against some is ultimately a threat to us all, and must be resisted wherever it may lurk.”

“In this ongoing battle, Canada stands side-by-side with the State of Israel, our friend and ally in the democratic family of nations,” Mr. Harper said. “We have stood with Israel even when it has not been popular to do so, and we will continue to stand with Israel, just as I have always said we would.”

Gee, and I thought that fella had some background in the werdz biz.

Meanwhile, the brother who got all the smarts in that family said on Facebook today:

So we're to believe that the C.I.A. has nabbed a top Talib with Pakistani help? Sure, and Wali Karzai's got some land to sell us in Kandahar. With our Afghan mission now teetering between big power treachery and rampant corruption, it's time to recall Parliament, Mr. Harper, and truly recalibrate.

I would have said that Arthur got all the looks too, but that woulda just been mean.

That other collateral damage.

Last Monday there was a discussion on Radio-Canada regarding Michelle Lang's presence on a mission which turned deadly. The journalist Michèle Ouimet - who has reported three times from Afghanistan - opined that Lang's assignment did not obligate her to travel on recce.

Perhaps Lang hoped her commitment to getting the story would encourage members of the Armed Forces to entrust her with information which might allow her to do justice to the extreme conditions that besiege them in Kandahar province. And to write scrupulously researched articles about circumstances observed in close proximity with an integrity that others such as Stephanie Nolen have demonstrated.

Critically injured in the explosion that killed Lang and four Canadian Armed Forces personnel was Bushra Amjad Saeed, a DFAIT political officer working for the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team. Was she directed by her superiors to monitor information shared between Lang and the troops?

The fatal December 30th recce mission was a routine sortie in a LAV III. Ouimet has traveled with Canadian troops inside one of these armoured vehicles; she said that from her vantage position all she could observe were soldiers doing their jobs.

Lang's specialty was health issues; in volunteering for this dangerous assignment she may have hoped to deepen our knowledge of the range of sacrifices required of soldiers.

Saeed's role on that mission only makes sense when one takes into consideration how Stevie Spiteful and his ReformaTory bullies urgently needed to control every shred of information about Afghanistan.

Unlike Lang, Saeed did not have a choice about her presence in that LAV III. Following what has become for the Conservative minority government a shameful exposure of their loathsome tactics, Lawrence Cannon may have told his staff to keep a lid on reports from Afghanistan. No matter what the collateral damage.

What's next? Holding their breath until they turn blue?

Oh wait. They already are. ReformaTory Con job blue.

This morning I heard a most revolting, though predictable, interview on Radio-Canada. Daniel Petit, MP for Charlebourg-Haute-Saint-Charles was asked why his Conservative colleagues did not attend the scheduled meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Afghanistan. His rote answer - in reply to every question - was that they would not allow the Canadian troops to be dirtied by the opposition's accusation that they are war criminals. Over and over again. The interviewer tried to get a truthful response in spite of Petit's broken record technique. "Why do your MPs disrespect Parliament and the electorate who expect them to do their job?"

Second verse, same as the first from Petit: "We will not allow our brave soldiers to be dirtied by such accusations." Petit stonewalled his way through the exchange, clutching the party line and waving it like a flag bespoiled by fatuous spin doctors in the Con ranks.

One tactic I doubt Stevie Spiteful and his Harpocrites would ever use is the hunger strike. Look at that rotund assembly of sleek double-chinned wonders. One week without food and they're grilling Senator Porky Pig on a spit.

Update: Daniel Petit is the political equivalent of a sock-puppet; at all times you're aware that somebody off-stage is pulling the strings, especially the one that triggers the scripted blather-loop.

There's so much more of course, to the dog-and-pony show. C.C. nails it in his post: Brave, brave, brave Sir Stephen. As does Balbulican, here.

Bizarre Metaphors: Afghanistan as "special needs baby".

This metaphor is almost as idiotic as the one exploited by Blob Blogging Wingnut when SHE was attempting to defend Bill C-484, now defunct. At that time, SHE compared a pregnant woman to a bird-cage containing a parrot; a colleague in religious zealotry used the allegory of a giant-screen television damaged while being stolen.

Thomas Friedman may be a thrice-awarded Pulitzer prize winner, but his lame attempt to achieve a memorable sound bite may be remembered for different reasons.

... we're talking about America in the middle of the great recession. I feel like we're like an unemployed couple who just went out and decided to adopt a special needs baby. You know, I mean, that's really kind of what we're doing. And that's like, whoa, y'know, that terrifies me.

Some have argued that the parents of that "special needs baby" don't want the US to adopt it.

O Solo Mama may also have some witheringly appropriate observations to make about the perpetuation of more inaccuracies and stereotypes about the adoption process.

Guns'n No Roses

South Carolina is a mighty special US state. It holds a special place in the heart of many Canadians because of the beauty of the seashore and its beaches, but dang! it is one squirrely place when guns or sex are mixed in with its politics.

For many candidates the road to public office means fundraisers, shaking hands, kissing babies, and firing machine guns? Well, firing machine guns may not be that common on the campaign trail but a man running for South Carolina’s Adjutant General decided to use machine gun fire to get votes.

“You know most political candidates, republican side in particular, they want to get out to the country club and stand around with a glass of wine in their hand,“ said candidate Dean Allen. He held a “machine gun social” at Allen Arms Indoor Range in Greenville.

For 25 dollars, donor to his campaign got barbecue and a chance to fire a machine gun of their choice. “Well I wanted a place where we could have some fun,“ said Allen.

Allen chose the venue because it relects his emphasis on Second Amendment rights. The Adjutant General is responsible for overseeing South Carolina’s defense forces. Allen says that, if elected, he would try to increase funding for the National Guard. He also advocated bringing the National Guard home from Afghanistan to help control illegal immigration.

“The plan on paper says the national guard will reinforce law enforcement,“ said Allen. “Well if the National Guard is in Afghanistan it can’t do that.“ Allen is countin (sic) on his pro gun-ownership stance to help him win votes.

Did we mention that Allen shindig also included a raffle to win a Kalashnikov? The assault weapon was in the news recently because the Russian weapons manufacturing company is facing bankruptcy; the revenue-deprived army has stopped placing orders and cheap AK-47 knock-offs manufactured in China and Eastern Europe are flooding the arms market.

We wonder if the Kalashnikov that Allen raffled off is the real thing.

Women for Women: Afghanistan.

As the results of the Afghan election await official confirmation, it seems appropriate to write about some small, hard-earned successes in this country.

First, Flora MacDonald has been involved with CARE projects in Afghanistan before the attacks on the WTC.

When she first traveled to Afghanistan, in 2001, the country was still under Taliban rule. Ms. MacDonald was working to establish underground schools for girls who were being denied an education. One day, when Ms. MacDonald was walking back from a visit to one of the secret schools two “big Taliban gentlemen” fell in step on either side of her. One could speak English and told her they knew what she was doing, but wouldn’t tell anyone if their daughters could attend the school too.

“Not all Taliban are militant, many want peace,” said Ms. MacDonald. This year in January, Azra Jafari became the country’s first female mayor of the town Nili, in Daikundi province. “I tell you I could have done a Highland dance,” said Ms. MacDonald.

The 82-year-old is passionate about the lives of women and girls in Afghanistan. Ms. MacDonald has been working to improve the plight of widows, the lack of education for girls, the thousands of street children orphaned by years of conflict, the lack of access to water and many other problems created by years of war and Taliban rule.

“Progress is being made in Afghanistan, although certainly not uniformly throughout the country,” said Ms. MacDonald. “It gives us all hope, though the work is long and hard and will not be carried out overnight.”

From here. MacDonald's agenda is not political in the partisan sense of the word - it is progressive, respectful and compassionate.

Then from The Star, this:

"The women are growing carrots, cucumbers, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, grapes," says Catherine Sobrevega, country manager for MEDA Afghanistan. "But these are not the products you find being sold from the back of trucks on the side of the highway. These are higher-quality fruits and vegetables that are sold in supermarkets and to hotels."

MEDA is the Mennonite Economic Development Association, headquartered in Waterloo, which provides microfinancing for the Garden Gate Project in conjunction with CIDA. ...

"I'm not a Mennonite," notes Sobrevega, who hails from the Philippines and spent 14 years working for CARE International in Afghanistan before taking the MEDA job. "We don't try to bring faith. The only important thing is the sincerity you bring to the project."

The undertaking started with three villages in 2007, since expanded to nine, and 14 more are knocking on the door to join. That, too, is a victory of alien practice over rural culture, where women are severely circumscribed by Afghan patriarchy, rarely venturing outside their homes, discouraged from any activities not directly related to their families.

Through direct $2,000 MEDA grants and funds secured via various agencies, microfinancing is extended to these rural ladies for instruction in modern horticultural techniques and marketing acumen, linking them to a network of development organizations such as Women for Women and the Afghan Women's Business Council.

"What we do is provide the horticultural experts and link them to financial institutions that can provide them with loans because 50 per cent of the funding needs to come from the women themselves," says Sobrevega. ... A woman needs only show she has 250 square metres of land at her disposal, to start, with capacity to double that in the second or third year of gardening. Zero profit is expected in the first season of planting but $150 in the next and – with a greenhouse constructed, for example, an average of $380 in the third. That may seem piddling but it makes an immense difference to a rural household – allowing for the purchase of school supplies, appliances and other conveniences, even the odd luxury. And it's no small benefit that children get a better diet out of it to boot.

What an idea: a religious organization with a progressive, respectful and compassionate agenda. Those fundamentalist catholics attempting to destroy their very own Development and Peace might want to take a time-out from their shrieeeking temper tantrums to observe how small miracles actually work. With goodwill, an open mind and and a kind heart.

Check out this post at A Creative Revolution about RAWA - Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan - too.

The War for Afghanistan's Women

A terrific piece in the LA Times by Malcolm Potts about demographics and women in Afghanistan. Some tastes:

There are two wars going on in Afghanistan. One is to defeat the Taliban, and that war is not going well. The other is to liberate women, and that war has hardly begun. If the first war is won but the second is lost, Afghanistan will turn into a failed state -- a caldron of violence and misery, home to extremism and totally outside the Western orbit of influence.

One result of rapid population growth is that two-thirds of the Afghan population is below the age of 25. The primary role models for the volatile, testosterone-filled young men in this group are local warlords. The reason Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden (who, incidentally, is the 17th child of a man who had 54 children) have found a haven in Afghanistan is largely because of the mixture of loyalty and anger generated among males in such a society, in which there are no genuine economic opportunities for advancement. The word "taliban" means "student."

(I didn't know that about 'taliban'.)

A stable, modern and functioning Afghanistan is the West's goal. But it is not worth risking the death of one more American or British soldier fighting there unless there is a bold, achievable plan to educate women, enhance their autonomy and meet their need for family planning.

Or Canadian soldier.

As they say, go read the whole thing.

Protecting the girls and women of Afghanistan

Yeah. Right.

Afghanistan has quietly passed a law permitting Shia men to deny their wives food and sustenance if they refuse to obey their husbands' sexual demands, despite international outrage over an earlier version of the legislation which President Hamid Karzai had promised to review.

The new final draft of the legislation also grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and grandfathers, and requires women to get permission from their husbands to work.
. . .
Brad Adams, the [Human Rights Watch] Asia director, said: "The rights of Afghan women are being ripped up by powerful men who are using women as pawns in manoeuvres to gain power.

"These kinds of barbaric laws were supposed to have been relegated to the past with the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, yet Karzai has revived them and given them his official stamp of approval."

Here's a succinct take on it by The Mound of Sound at The Disaffected Lib:

You know something? We're just going to have to take a big bite out of this shit sandwich we call Afghanistan. Eight years we've been over there fighting to keep this gaggle of sick bastards in power and we can stay another eighty and they're not going to change. They're religious fanatics and warlords and drug lords and common criminals and corrupt bureaucrats and cops.

As The Mound says: we aren't winning, we can't win, we'll never change anything, our so-called friends are as bad as our enemies, we'll wind up fighting both friends and enemies and look how that worked out for the Russians.

And surely by now anybody with a functioning neuron can see that that 'protecting the girls and women' meme is totally bogus.

Canada out of Afghanistan!

The four women found in the Rideau Canal were murdered.

Remember this disturbing news story in late June?

Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths of three sisters and another relative who were found inside a submerged car in locks northeast of Kingston.
Ontario Provincial Police divers removed the bodies of three teens, aged 13, 17 and 19, and a 50-year-old woman described as a relative, from a vehicle found in the Kingston Mills locks around 4 p.m. Tuesday. The identities of the victims, who were all from Quebec, have not yet been released. They had been on vacation in southern Ontario and were on their way back to Quebec, police said Wednesday. They were reported missing by relatives.
"It breaks my heart just saying it," Const. Michael Menor, spokesman for Kingston Police, said in an interview with The Canadian Press. "You have a family, they've all drowned. It's just horrifyingly tragic."

The circumstances were particularly troubling when it became evident that the presence of the car in that particular section of the Rideau Canal could not have have been caused by accident or driver error.

The Kingston police have charged 3 suspects, two men and one woman, with the murders of Zainab, Geeti and Sahar Shafia as well as Rona Amir Mohammed.

The presumed motive for the alleged quadruple homicide? The disposal of an older, inconvenient relative who happened to be Mohammed Shafi's first wife and three rebellious teenage girls who were perceived to be on a path that would bring dishonor to him? Were there life insurance benefits to be claimed? Thus it may be simply greed, the grease that helps to crank the wheel of fundamentalist religious and rightwing zealots the world over.

Update: This is the information released by the Kingston police at the press conference that just concluded, minutes ago. The news item is closed to comments

"because an overwhelming number of readers were making offensive statements about other commenters and/or the individual or individuals mentioned in the story".

No surprise there; judging from the types of comments that have appeared at the CBC website, I'd guess most were islamophobic. And yet, the patriarch in this case probably shares the same "family values" and gynophobic views as Randall Terry. Go figure.

Update: All three members of the Shafia family charged with first-degree murder were convicted of these crimes. They are currently serving 25 years sentences.

Silence will not protect us.

Sitara Achakzai. Safia Amajan. And now, Natalia Estemirova.

The desolate field was on the edge of town next to a disused factory. I heard crows and distant traffic as we walked along in the dusk, marshland on either side.

"One of the women was wearing red boots," said Natalia. "There was very little grass in winter so you could spot her a mile off." My companion was a tall, determined-looking woman, who took big strides and talked at a rate of knots. Unlike most women in Grozny these days she wore no headscarf. Natalia was head of the Grozny branch of Memorial, the organisation that campaigns for human rights across Russia.

She had brought me to this dreary suburb to see the place where three women's bodies were found one day last November. The morning after that gruesome discovery, four more dead women were discovered around the Chechen capital. All seven had been shot in the head with an automatic weapon.

As we stood shivering in the dying light, I never dreamt that three weeks later Natalia, herself, would suffer a similar fate.

On Wednesday she was bundled into a van as she left her home. Her body was found later the same day in the neighbouring republic of Ingushetia, with multiple bullet wounds. There is little doubt in Chechnya that her killing was connected to her investigative and campaigning work - including the case of the seven murdered women.

These three women knew that speaking out, denouncing violence against women, put them in the bull's eye of murderous religious fundamentalists who kill with impunity. Such violence is also seen in other countries dominated by religious rightwing ideology. Mexico, for example. From here:

Mexican activist & journalist Lydia Cacho Ribeiro has been arrested and jailed by police. Women's rights advocates are calling Cacho's arrest a 'counter-attack' in revenge against Cacho for having authored a book, 'Demons in Eden' that exposed the connections between a group of wealthy business-men and pedophile rings and child pornographers.

Cacho was detained for the supposed crime of defamation (a criminal offense in Mexico) resulting from a complaint filed by Nacif Borge, a Lebanese born textile
businessman who Cacho has linked with the leader of the pedophile gang, millionaire hotelier Jean Succar Kuri ...

Since the publication of Demons in Eden, Cacho has been harassed and has received death threats for her investigative journalism. Cacho is the director of the Center for Integral Attention for Women (CIAM) in Cancun, whose 40 member staff have also been threatened by forces apparently linked to the wealthy businessmen.

Brutal, systemic violence perpetrated in christian countries against women and children - with the collusion of state officials - has been well documented by Amnesty International.