Activists From Canada

"There's never been a better time in human history to be a woman. And despite the blowback from misguided politicians, leftover s, and hypetmasculine s, women are closer to gaining than ever before. The journey ahead is bound to epic, and it will affect everything—our wallets, our jobs, our very future."

"There’s this extraordinary attitude that women should be second-class, put down, punished, not included. It is absolutely extraordinary to me. It doesn’t matter whether you are in or Iraq, Afghanistan or China — it’s the same thing."

"Women and girls have been on a perilous journaly of oppression and also wit and survival."

"“If anyone tells you that we’ve gone soft on world evangelization, you can tell them that we are totally committed to world evangelization because it is only Jesus Christ that changes people’s lives,” he said."

"“The most important thing that you can do with your [life] is to integrate it into the never ending story of God’s Kingdom,” Tunnicliffe said Wednesday. “God’s already at work in the world. He’s doing things. We just need to align with what He is doing.”"

"“We are also working on guidelines in area of evangelization and proselytization because we are under deep attack,” Tunnicliffe added."

"Democracies may be more fragile than we care to admit, existing perhaps one election from tyranny. At a time in history when those words blink red in the mind, this investigation shows the dangers of investing government with the power to kill suspected enemies in secret. Jaffer and his team perform a lasting public service by exposing the ‘targeted killing’ policies, and Jaffer’s introductory essay is a much-needed corrective to the linguistic manipulation and official obfuscation that have made these policies possible."

"I am excited about this opportunity to build an organization dedicated to a mission that’s so essential in a free society,” he said in the statement."

"Armed drones have given the United States the power to kill individuals anywhere, even far from conventional battlefields, but the United States has failed to articulate clear limits on their use—let alone subscribe to the limits imposed by international law. As Jaffer’s book makes clear, that failure has grave implications as the technology of killer drones inevitably spreads to other countries."

"This is a compelling exposé of the sophisticated and concerted efforts by Obama Administration officials to thoroughly subvert the international rule of law in the pursuit of minor short-term military gains and at the expense of American credibility."

"The sad fact, as Jaffer notes, is that Democrats who protested when George W. Bush claimed broad war powers were quite willing to help Barack Obama claim even broader ones. The result is that the counterproductive, colossally wasteful, deeply unethical, and endlessly expanding ‘war on terror’ has now become a permanent bipartisan fixture of our foreign policy. Jaffer’s introduction is careful and fair—some might say too fair—but it is a devastating indictment of the irresponsible and short-sighted arguments that the Obama administration made in secret memos and then in open court."

"Justice Alito’s opinion for the court seems to be based on the theory that the secret court may one day, in some as-yet unimagined case, subject the law to constitutional review, but that day may never come. In many national security cases, the government has prevailed at the outset by citing lack of standing, the state secrets doctrine or officials’ immunity from suit.... More than a decade after 9/11, we still have no judicial ruling on the lawfulness of torture, of extraordinary rendition, of targeted killings or of the warrantless wiretapping program. These programs were all contested in the public sphere, but they have not been contested in the courts.”"

"President Obama has spoken eloquently about the importance of restoring America’s moral authority abroad. Restoring that moral authority, though, will require restoring the rule of law at home, and restoring the rule of law at home will require finally confronting the gross human rights abuses of the last administration. Crucial to this process will be the creation of a comprehensive and publicly accessible record of the last eight years."

"Our request was relatively broad because we don’t think the public can meaningfully evaluate the lawfulness of the strike that killed al-Aulaqi and Samir Khan—or the strike that killed 16-year-old Abdulrahman al-Aulaqi two weeks later—without access to the factual basis the government relied on to justify the strikes. We also believe that the public is entitled to records relating to civilian casualties.... Once the Second Circuit remands our case to the district court, the ACLU will almost certainly be litigating not only over the other OLC memos but over this kind of factual information as well."

"The important fact is that Assange has been indicted on the grounds that he engaged in activities like cultivating confidential sources, maintaining their confidentiality or maintaining the confidentiality of their identities, and publishing classified secrets. And, of course, those things, all of those things, are integral to national security journalism."

"I do think that the decision is important and surprising, a very significant victory for Julian Assange. I think the press freedom implications are more complicated. The judge — while ultimately holding that Assange can’t be extradited to the United States on the basis of his mental health and the conditions under which he would be held if he were extradited here, the judge largely endorses the U.S. prosecution theory. And that theory is based on an indictment that sweeps very, very broadly, that basically the indictment is an effort to hold Assange criminally responsible for acts that journalists engage in all the time. And it doesn’t matter whether Assange himself is properly characterized as a journalist. That may be an important debate, but legally it’s completely irrelevant."

"And the press freedom fear here is that the prosecution of Assange, and even the indictment itself, will deter journalism that is important and necessary and that should be regarded as protected by the First Amendment. And I think that this ruling is, again, a victory for Assange, but insofar as it’s an endorsement of the U.S.’s prosecution theory and of the underlying indictment, I think that that indictment is going to continue to cast a kind of shadow over investigative journalism."

"Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger on Tuesday announced Jameel Jaffer of the ACLU as founding director of the First Amendment Institute, which was created to work to preserve and expand freedoms in the digital age.... “We’re at a moment in our history when freedom of expression, access to information and high quality journalism have never been more important, yet are facing unprecedented challenges,” Bollinger said in a statement. “No one understands that better than Jameel Jaffer. Throughout his accomplished career, Jameel has proven himself to be among the First Amendment’s most effective defenders and we could hardly have a more ideal founding director of the Knight Institute at Columbia.” Jaffer, who joined ACLU nearly 15 years ago, has litigated a number of notable cases involving national security and civil liberties, including constitutional challenges to gag orders under the USA Patriot Act and National Security Agency surveillance."

"“No belief system should be immune from scrutiny, and no historical figure beyond examination. Challenging dogmas and embracing intellectual freedom is essential for human progress.” — p. 5"

"“What drove Muhammad to success was his need to be loved. This is the secret behind history’s great narcissists. It is this need that drives them so tirelessly.” — p. 27"

"Ali Sina, an Iranian Islamic apostate who lives in Canada, points out that there is one golden rule that lies at the heart of every religion – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. In Islam, this rule only applies to fellow believers, but not to Infidels. Ali Sina says 'The reason I am against Islam is not because it is a religion, but because it is a political ideology of imperialism and domination in the guise of religion. Because Islam does not follow the Golden Rule, it attracts violent people.'"

"“People think that the sheer size of Islam qualifies it as a religion. This is the fallacy of argumentum ad numerum. Can 1.5 billion people all be wrong? Yes, they can — history shows that often all mankind has been wrong.” — p. 16"

"After reading the Koran I was overtaken by a great depression. It was hard to accept all that. At first I started denying and seeking esoteric meanings to the apparent verses of the Koran. But it wasn't possible. The weight of the proof was too big. I found out that Khomeini was right, that the Taliban believe in the real Islam, that what I used to think of Islam was not the real Islam at all. I found out that Islam teaches nothing but hate, that the whole message of Islam is to believe in a deity without any proof, a deity who despises reason, who loves killing innocent people, who is expert in torture, who is ruthless, and who does not know elementary scientific facts about the universe that he allegedly created. This was hard to swallow, and I did not want to accept what I came to learn."

"I find the word 'Muslim' very derogatory and insulting. It is synonymous to stupid, barbarian, thug, arrogant, brain dead, zombie, hooligan, goon, shameless, savage and many other ignoble things. I don't know whether this most disgusting word elicits the same meanings in you or not. So when I want to show my despise [sic] of someone I call him 'Muslim'. But because Muslims are stupid, they don't know all these things and they are proud of this name. This is a win/win situation because I insult them and they are happy and thank me for it. Isn't that smart?"

"“Zealotry, assassinations, terrorism and suicide bombings do not prove Islam is true; they only prove the fanaticism of its followers.” — p. 180"

"“Islam is the personality cult of one man. Muslims claim they worship only Allah, but since Allah was Muhammad’s alter ego, in practice it is him whom they worship.” — p. 68"

"“Criticism of Muhammad is met with rage. Muslims may tolerate criticism of Allah, but never of Muhammad. No questions are asked — and no judgment is allowed.” — p. 18"

"“What separates humans from beasts is our ability to think critically. Islam robs its followers of this ability. The phobia instilled since childhood paralyzes their minds.” — p. 18"

"“The doctrine of al wala wal bara embodies the core message of Islam. It is undisguised hate. Muslims must hate you unless it is to deceive you or convert you.” — p. 23"

"“Even with all the proofs in the world, a Muslim will not abandon Muhammad. To tell him otherwise is like telling a child his father is a murderer and thief. He will reject it and explode in anger.” — p. 68"

"“Islam is not to teach spirituality nor is it for enlightenment. The spiritual message in Islam is practically nonexistent. Piety in Islam means emulating Muhammad.” — p. 178"

"Omar Khayyam was a great mathematician who calculated the length of the year with a precision of 0.74% of a second. Zakaria Razi can very well be regarded as one of the first founders of empirical medicine who based his knowledge on research and experimentation. Ali Sina's monumental encyclopedia of medicine was taught in European universities for centuries. There are so many more great luminaries with "Islamic names" who have been the pioneers of modern science when Europe was languishing in the medieval era or the Dark Ages. Like all Muslims, I used to believe that all these great men were Muslims, that they had been inspired by the wealth of hidden knowledge that is in the Koran, and that if the Muslims today could regain the original purity of Islam, the long lost glorious days of Islam would return and the Muslims would lead the advancement of the world civilization once again."

"Later, when I started to study the hadith, I leaned many more horrible facts that I had never heard before. I learned, for example, that my beloved Prophet used to send assassins to terrorize his opponents in the middle of night, telling them to lie and act deceitfully if necessary. I learned that he ordered the murder of a 120-year-old man whose only crime was to recite a lyric ridiculing the Prophet. Another one of his victims was a poetess, mother of five small children, whose crime was also to compose poetry condemning Muhammad for murdering that old man. The assassin entered the house of this woman and pierced his sword in her chest while she was asleep with her baby nursing on her side. And the next day the messenger of Allah praised the assassin."

"I signed up to volunteer for People's Party of Canada. Join me!"

"We decided to cancel the event in respect of the gay community, We'll be arranging another in July"

"We don't go out and intimidate people or flash our vests, We have nothing to hide. Last fall, a little girl found a needle on Louis Street, and she got poked by it, As a parent myself, I couldn't imagine my child coming home with a needle that just got stuck in her hand. I know some people want to keep it just because they worked hard for the name, Some people want to keep it because Finland is pissed, and they want us to change it so some of us will be doing it just to spite them. If somebody starts posting racist stuff, they get the choice: take it off immediately, don't do it again or you're out, Saying every Soldier of Odin is bad would be like saying every Muslim is a terrorist. They're not and neither are we."

"They're all good people. You'll see, They're like family. A lot of us work together. water and granola bars They say not to paint them all with the same paintbrush, But they are what they are. They read the same book. They have the same ideas. They're evil people, they're nasty people, and I don't want them in my country, to be honest with you. We don't care if Muslims are here. That's not what we're saying, We're not saying stop immigration. That's nothing to do with what we're saying at all. But Shariah law is scary stuff. We're not here to start a fight, We don't look for problems."

"We're just trying to prove that we're not racist, I find what's hurting us is the fact the police chief made that statement apologizing and that he shouldn't have taken the picture. That's probably been the worst part of it all because the soup kitchen is getting calls, Which I think is kind of sad because why would you stop feeding people because of who's feeding the people? I can't speak for every member, But we've been in Canada for two years now. Before this all blew up, we were here, not long after Soldiers of Odin started. The name was already here. You just didn't hear much about us. I did a little bit of research when I joined. But when I joined, I was told they weren't racists. So some of us want to keep the name for spite, because Finland is mad at us, they don't want us using it, Finland calls Canada traitors, except for Quebec, of course. Myself, I like to spite them, because we're Canada, we're not Finland. When they talk about them now, they call them the former Soldiers of Odin, All we do is help out at the soup kitchen, collect needles, recently we started helping out with organ donors. We're not going anywhere. We're going to keep doing what we can. I don't mind that at all, we don't mind at all, As far as immigrants coming here, we're all for it. We have no issue with it at all. It doesn't matter what religion they are, what race they are or where they're from. If they need help, we will help them ... Our motto is, we're here to help. It doesn't matter who it is. My comment was they shouldn't speed things up, they should leave it as it was, We have no problem with them coming here, we just think that when you start rushing people through, you miss things sometimes and you can let a bad apple in. I know there's a lot going on, There's a lot of bad out there and a lot of good. I try to focus on what we're doing around here, especially in Ontario. We're trying to clean up our image around here. We were at New Sudbury Days (Sunday) and a lot of people came up and said hi, some kept going, The police chief wouldn't even walk near us. He turned and walked in the other direction when he saw it was us standing there. While I was gone, the police chief walked up to our members of the club and said he knows who we are, he said he knew we were out there cleaning up needles and he thanked us, Then he was going to take a picture with us, but they said David's not here, he's our president and he'll be back shortly. The police chief came back about 45 minutes later, came up, introduced himself as Paul, shook my hand and said, 'let's do this picture."

"There are some out there who believe we are fascists, racists, and any other bad names you can think of, Even though we have been here for over a year now, we’ve only been called names recently. Never have any members done anything bad to anyone and not even the regional nor the provincial police have heard of anything. If they have no evidence of criminal activity, which some members of the public claim, why is it that claims of violence and harassment are now commonplace? We pick up needles when no one else will, we help at the soup kitchen because they need help, we assist with local legions when they need help and veterans who cannot do their own yard work, we pick up garbage which others carelessly discard, we help other groups if they need people to help them (as with the organ donor car show), we also help individuals who ask for it or if others ask on their behalf, We have not participated in any activities which may be taken negatively. We are all average people who want to better our communities. None of us wishes anything bad on anyone and if we come across someone within our ranks who is a bad apple, they are removed. That’s if they make it through our vetting process. We only want to help by giving up our own time, effort, and money. We are not racists or anti anyone," wrote Smith. "If you get along, we have nothing against you. We’re not fascists either because real fascists are for strong autocratic or dictatorial control, which we’re not. Google is the bathroom wall of the Internet because anyone can post anything so don’t take everything you see to heart. Feel free to reach out to us if you want to know more or just to get to know us. They want to do whatever they can to run us out of town for picking up needles and helping out at the Soup Kitchen, We’re hoping that maybe after Christmas, the New Year, when things calm down, and people realize we are not the one in Finland (and that) we are something different, It would be nice. Most of the patrons enjoyed us."

"we are not soldiers of Odin they are their own group and are not in any way affiliated to the Sons of Odin"

"Check out People's Party of Canada. I just joined."

"We’re scared of people thinking we’re a bunch of thugs. Today we wanted to go out in the daylight because if people see us walking around in all our black shirts at night they might get the wrong idea, We’re walking a very fine line right now and if we make one little move that looks wrong everyone is going to be calling us racists and thugs right away but really we’re not. We’re not vigilantes. We’re not doing patrols."

"im no longer with Sons of Odin but do support the movement im a president of Hamilton Soldiers of Odin now"

"Did you know orchids employ trickery to attract insects? They spray a deceptive scent resembling insect pheromones. Bad flower! Bad flower! Liar! Liar! Petals on fire!"

"Trigger Warning! Rape is a rape is a rape."

"Inverted heart, becomes the testicles of a man."

"How do I love thee? Let me count the days. If there are 50 ways to leave your lover then there are 50 ways to be left."

"There is an afterlife to love and there is love in the afterlife."

"Somewhere, the deepest desire for us all is to be appreciated, to be loved, to be seen as somebody of value. But not just seen — and Aristotle makes a difference between being admired and being loved. When you admire people, you put them on pedestals. When you love people, you want to be together. So really, the first meeting I had with people with disabilities, what touched me was their cry for relationship."

"To look forward, to want life, means we have to be willing to look backwards and become more conscious of all those who have hurt us, all that is broken in us and that has brought us inner deaths, hurts that we may have hidden and stifled. It means that we acknowledge the story of our origins, of our own lives, see and accept our brokenness and the times we also have hurt others. When we have accepted who we are and what we need in order to grow in compassion and peacemaking, we can move forward to give life. To forgive is a gift of God that permits us to let go of our past hurts."