Bad news for The Lobby means good news for the rest of us
Canadian Arab News (December 7, 2006)
As years go, 2006 has been dismal for Canada politically. On almost every front, the country’s reputation, civil liberties and self-respect have taken a shellacking. Among other things, Stephen Harper and his cabal of Christian-Zionist anti-statist wingnuts have:
• gutted this country’s environmental policy;
• presented Parliament with a softwood lumber deal that rewards U.S. thievery to the tune of $1 billion;
• committed Canada to a combat role in Afghanistan, contrary to the national interest;
• showed contempt for any standard of governmental accountability; and most conspicuously,
• reinforced Canada’s shame as a sock puppet of Israel. ...read more

Remembrance Day—a delusional escape to a time when fascists were the enemy
Canadian Arab News (November 9, 2006)
Even though Remembrance Day and its symbols date to the end of the First World War, it is the Second World War that attracts the most attention. We still act as if our modern world could trace its origin to the end of hostilities in 1945, oblivious to the fact that we have become the new fascists...read more

The World According to Garth
gregfelton.com (October 28, 2006)
On Oct. 18, Garth Turner, MP for the Ontario riding of Halton, was expelled from the Harper Party for having expressed an opinion on a matter of policy. In an interview, Mr. Turner explains his ouster as a product of Stephen Harper’s secretive, autocratic regime, under which an elected MP needs permission to ask a question, debate or even represent his constituents. ...read more

Michael Ignatieff’s crime and punishment shows real face of Canada’s government
Canadian Arab News (October 14, 2006)
(THE SCENE: Evening, Oct. 11, 2006. In the centre of a darkened room stands Michael Ignatieff, candidate for the Liberal Party leadership. He is agitated and confused.)
MICHAEL IGNATIEFF: (shouting into the darkness) “Where am I! Who brought me here? I demand to know what’s going on!”
(After a brief pause, a calm but menacing voice answers.)
VOICE: “You have no right to demand anything, Mr. Ignatieff. On the contrary, it is we who will be demanding certain things of you.”
IGNATIEFF: “‘We?’ Who is ‘we?’ Do I know you?”
VOICE: “Yes, of course you do. Everyone does, though few have ever met us. We are as well-known to Canadians as hockey and maple syrup. They see us every day in their media, and when the government speaks, our voice is clearly discernable.”
IGNATIEFF: “What are you—some sort of ventriloquists?”
VOICE: “Interesting analogy, Mr. Ignatieff. Yes, you might say that. We put words in peoples’ mouths and work closely with all sorts of ‘dummies.’” ...read more

Canada’s soldiers are dying to prop up Bush and Kabul’s embattled ‘mayor’
Canadian Arab News (October 5, 2006)
The number of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2002 now stands at 39. Sgt. Craig Paul Gillam and Cpl. Robert Thomas James Mitchell, both of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, became the latest fatalities after a handful of Taliban insurgents attacked a road construction project in the Panjwaii district 20 miles west of Kandahar. This latest attack is noteworthy for three reasons. First, it occurred in a region that was thought to have been cleared of Taliban. Second, more than half of all Canadian fatalities have occurred in the last three months since the Harper government committed troops to combat operations in the south.…Third, a recent Decima Research poll published Oct. 2, found that 59 percent of Canadians believe that our soldiers are dying for a cause we cannot win. ...read more

When truth is a threat to a government’s lies, honest opinion must adopt a satirical guise
Canadian Arab News (August 8, 2006)
Ugh! TV—what a wasteland! Hmm. What’s this? A new political affairs show? Let’s give it a shot. Click!
SONOROUS VOICE-OVER: “…and now Face of the Nation, with your host Brian Cohen.”
BRIAN COHEN: “Good evening. As the massacre in Lebanon continues to dominate the news, Canada’s uncritical support for Israel’s bombardment is having damaging repercussions at home and abroad for Stephen Harper’s new government. His party’s popularity is collapsing in Quebec, and even his own constituency office in Calgary is beset by anti-war protesters. Overseas, Canada’s reputation as a fair-minded, law-abiding nation is now in question. Has the new Harper government shot itself in the foot? How did the party come to adopt pro-Israel absolutism? To answer these and other questions, please welcome our guest, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter McKay.” ...read more

Our liberties and sovereignty under assault as Harper remakes Canada in Bush’s image
Canadian Arab News (May 18, 2006)
Felton’s First Law of Electoral Politics: “The louder an Opposition Party rails against government unaccountability and the more it speaks of ethical reforms, the greater the danger that it will be even more unaccountable and unethical if it gets into power.”…In my March 16 column, I gave an early assessment of the Harper government’s promise of ethical government, and in so doing demonstrated the truth of Felton’s First Law. ...read more.

Harper prefers to serve the criminal designs of Israel and The Lobby than uphold Canadian law
Canadian Arab News (April 5, 2006)
Most Canadians were understandably dismayed when Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro suddenly decided not to investigate Prime Minister Stephen Harper over the defection of Liberal MP David Emerson. According to Shapiro, the question of MP defections is a matter for Parliament to decide. Of course, Harper claimed victory, but so what? Shapiro’s decision is far less significant than the judgment of the vast majority of Canadian voters, who rightly see Harper’s Hillbillies as hypocritical, moralistic amateurs. The electorate will have a chance to pass its own judgment fairly soon, because ineptitude and arrogance will surely bring the government down before year’s end.. ...read more.

Harper’s Bush-league government quickly rises to the level of its own incompetence
Canadian Arab News (March 16, 2006)
How closely does our Prime Minister follow George Bush? Let me count the ways: imperial contempt toward the press, refusal to respect the national legislature, letting the Israel Lobby make foreign policy….I could go on. Eventually, though, this autocratic arrogance will be his undoing just as it’s proving to be for King George the Dim and his court of sociopathic sycophants. The only variables are time and the Canadian public’s abuse tolerance threshold. ...read more.

Stephen Harper sets idiocy record—commits political suicide during swearing-in ceremony
gregfelton.com (February 8, 2006)
Near the end of my Jan. 5 column I said that if the Harper Party managed to form the next government, it would spend so much time in damage control mode that it would have no time to govern. At the time, I thought the government benches would at least be warm before the first disaster struck, but I misjudged Stephen Harper’s propensity for self-immolation. Before the first Throne Speech is delivered, Canada’s new prime minister has managed to destroy his own credibility, infuriate his own MPs, and negate his party’s moral authority to govern. ...read more.

Democratic guise cannot hide the real face of anti-Arab, pro-Israel propaganda factory
Canadian Arab News (January 19, 2006)
Barring a last-minute jolt of sobriety, Canadian voters seem ready to choose Stephen Harper and his posse of pusillanimous populists to run the country… into the ground. A PR makeover by the advisor to Australian prime minister John Howard—a staunch supporter of Bush’s anti-Iraq crusade—and uncritical, lazy media coverage have given Harper an unwarranted air of competence and electability. Also, popular anger over Liberal political scandals, and fatigue with 13 straight years of Liberal rule, has bred a “change for change sake” attitude.. ...read more.

Voting for another Liberal minority might make us queasy,
but the alternative would surely embarrass us to death
Canadian Arab News (January 5, 2006)
It’s now well into the first week of January, and most of the world has recovered from any lingering effects of a New Year’s hangover. Here in Canada, though, the pounding headaches and nausea will last 2.5 more weeks. Hanging over us is the Jan. 23 federal election, which means an endless barrage of polls and negative advertising. (Oh the pain, the pain!) In the end, we’ll likely end up with another Liberal minority propped up by the NDP, which is where we started. Still, the unthinkable could happen. If voters are angry enough at the government and sucked in by the kinder, gentler media image of Stephen Harper, we could end up electing a full-blown U.S.-Israeli proxy government that would reduce Canadian political independence to a joke—more so. ...read more.

Polls paint apathetic political picture
Canadian Arab News (December 8, 2005)
It’s time for Canada’s political opposition to put up or shut up. They brought down Paul Martin’s minority Liberal government, and forced us into a winter election.  I hope they’re satisfied, because voters certainly aren’t. ...read more.

Canada’s Muslims need a swift kick in their political allegiance
Canadian Arab News (September 15, 2005)
…When I think of the lack of respect our media shows toward Muslims or how our law virtually assumes them to be guilty until proven innocent, I wonder if they might not be partly to blame for their plight. How can Arabs and Muslims expect the political climate to improve if they rush to defend their enemy, assail one of their own publications, and develop laryngitis when one of their own is vilified. ...read more

VanCity gives Arab business one month to close account
Canadian Arab News (September 1, 2005)
B.C. Market, a convenience and Arabic food store in New Westminster, B.C., has been a member of VanCity Credit Union for five years, but on Aug.15 its owners were summarily told their accounts would be closed within a month. VanCity stated in separate letters to the two owners that it had been unable to fully understand the nature of the business revenue, but Hanna Kawas is certain the motive was more personal than professional. ...read more.

Nobody expects the Jewish Inquisition!
Canadian Arab News (September 1, 2005)
Yes folks, time for another episode of Flip Your Yarmulke!—the unintentionally funny reality show where members of Canada’s Jewish Lobby go berserk on scholars and journalists who challenge the verities of zionist dogma and seek justice for Muslims. The rules of the show are simple. A Lobby representative impugns the integrity of a writer or publication by invoking the stale epithets “anti-Semitism” and “anti-Israel bias,” and then advocates censorship under the guise of fighting racism ...read more.

Better the lesser evil than the greater folly
Canadian Arab News (May 12, 2005)
Last month, I weighed in on the pending collapse of Paul Martin’s minority Liberal government. Ever since he ordered an inquiry into the sponsorship scandal, the media have feasted on revelations of financial impropriety and backroom shenanigans. Under normal circumstances, the government should be voted out, but these are not normal times in Canada. The usual alternative to the Liberals, the Conservative Party, has been missing in action ever since Brian Mulroney and his band of Yankee sycophants signed away Canada’s economic future with the Free [sic] Trade Agreement. ...read more.

Canada’s self-respect is an election issue and voters (sigh!)
have no choice
Canadian Arab News (April 14, 2005)
Allegations of pervasive corruption and cronyism have proven enough to topple Paul Martin’s minority government and force the electorate back to the polls for the second time in 18 months. To what degree Martin and his ministers can be held accountable for misconduct committed under Jean Chrétien’s leadership is not clear, but... here are four words that should make every self-respecting Canadian reach for an airsick bag: “Foreign Minister Stockwell Day.” In this nightmare scenario, the government would effectively farm out all Middle East policy directly to Israel, and not even make a pretense of defending Canadian interests. ...read more.

Pettigrew and Cotler test critical extremes
Canadian Arab News ( March 31, 2005)
On March 23, two cabinet ministers came under fire for advocating policies that one way or another pertain to Israel. One criticism was justified; the other wasn’t....read more