The New anti-Abortionists: Young Political Activists or Youthful Vigilantes?

I Burned my Bra For This? REAL Women of Canada and the Men Behind Them

The inspiration for the Moral Majority/Religious Right, in the United States, was the central government's passing of anti-segregation laws. However, the art of political activism by the movement, came from a man by the name of Francis Schaeffer.

If we are to understand the Harper government, we have to accept that everything they do or have done, comes from the U.S. Republican/Tea Party/Religious Right.

I could stop searching for these links, and instead focus on their truly Canadian-based actions, since it would be a much shorter list. The only problem is, that I haven't found any.

The election of Ronald Reagan in the U.S., gave the evangelical activists an "in". The election of Stephen Harper has done the same in Canada, and as Marci McDonald reminds us in The Armageddon Factor, they will now be a permanent fixture on Parliament Hill.

Francis Schaeffer and How the Evangelicals Stormed the Bastille

Reagan's 1980 victory, gave rise to many quasi-religious organizations, like Focus on the Family, who helped to finance Harper's 2006 victory, by placing radio ads on over 100 Canadian stations, against same-sex marriage. Harper's rallying cry.

The Canadian chapter of Focus on Family, was started by Stephen Harper's former chief of staff, Darrel Reid. The executive included two top ranking officials from their American parent organization, and $1.6 million from Dobson himself (Armageddon Factor, p.86), who claimed to be concerned with Canada's moral decay.

However, the notion that evangelicals should play a more active role in politics, came from Francis Schaeffer, the man who coined the term, or at least made popular the term, "secular humanism".

He believed that putting people above religion was wrong, and he was determined to do something about it. So he established a commune in Switzerland, L'Abri (shelter), devoted to Christian thought and activism. (There is a Canadian chapter on Bowen Island in B.C.)

When Michael Lindsay was researching his book: Faith in the Halls of Power, he found that many Religious Right leaders that he interviewed, had either visited the commune or had been heavily influenced by Schaeffer's writings.

One of the first campaigns that Schaeffer ignited, was the anti-abortion movement, that mobilized his followers to take action. It was perhaps the first time that orthodox Catholics and Protestants united for a common cause.

Gwen Lanholt, now president of REAL Women of Canada, was part of that movement.

And as a founding director of the Civitas Society*, the policy arm of the Harper government, she has a great deal of influence with the powers that be.

Youthful Vigilantes

Brian Lilley recently interviewed a young woman, named Alissa Golob, on his Fox News North/Sun TV Byline.

Golob is an anti-abortion activist, involved in a campaign to "shock" people into joining her cause, by posting images of aborted fetuses (emblazoned with a swastika). I've mentioned this in another post, because of yet another American inspired group, the Canadian Constitution Foundation, who had taken up the cause.



Golob believes that the graphic image campaign will work the same as MADD's (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) images of car wrecks and the police's of gang violence. However, they are about self-preservation.

No doubt the signs will impact some, but most of us have an idea of what an aborted fetus looks like.

However, this isn't really about the abortion debate, but the modus operandi of this new youth movement, attached to the broader neoconservative movement.

Golob brings up the work of her American counterpart, Lila Rose, a young woman who believes that abortions should be performed in the public square, so people can see how gross they are.

That may sound a little nuts, but Rose's involvement draws attention to a larger issue.

The benefactors.

Lila Rose is a graduate of Morton Blackwell's Leadership Institute, (so is Rob Anders and Karl Rove) and friend of James O'Keefe. O'Keefe was involved in the demise of ACORN, an organization that worked for the poor, especially African-Americans. The Neocons wanted it gone.

So two young activists, O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, went undercover to discredit the organization, and though their videos were later determined to be "highly edited", they were able to paint the non-profit group as "pimps".

But they couldn't have pulled it off without the help of Fox News and Andrew J. Breitbart. You might remember Breitbart as the one responsible for destroying the career of Anthony Weiner.

This has gone from political activism to dangerous vigilante justice against their perceived enemies. They want to destroy anyone and everything associated with a progressive and just society.

For Lila Rose, it's Planned Parenthood. She helped to perpetrate a hoax against PP, to "prove" that they were sex traffickers.

Where Does Alissa Golob Fit in to All This?

At the beginning I mentioned Francis Schaeffer, who inspired the Moral Majority/Christian Right. Schaeffer was a dominionist, who believed that before the Second Coming of Christ, the U.S. must be returned to a Christian nation.

Canada's dominionism, aka reconstructionism, is championed by people like Darrel Reid and David Sweet (amoung many, many others), both involved in the Work Research Foundation, and Redeemer University. (Sweet also Canadian founder of Promise Keepers)

Redeemer University, a private for-profit school, received three million from the Harper government as part of the Canada Action Plan.

Alissa Golob is a graduate of Redeemer, one of many of her fellow students, turned activists for the movement. And while she claims to be pro-life, it's pretty clear that she is just anti-abortion. She does not encourage birth control or "safe sex".

Because those are some of the best defenses against abortion.

Better access to contraception, higher quality sex education and shifting social norms have contributed to a 36.9 per cent decline in Canada’s teen birth and abortion rate between 1996 and 2006, according to a report released today by the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada.

Other initiatives that Golob could adopt would be eradicating poverty and improving health care.

But that will never happen.

The group that Golob works for, Campaign Life Coalition, also has Planned Parenthood in their crosshairs.

The Harper government has already defunded them at home and abroad.

The Campaign Life Coalition also had a hand in the success of Stockwell Day, by selling 130,000 memberships to the Alliance Party, on his behalf.

So do you see what we're up against?

Fox News, the American Religious Right and Stephen Harper. Jagged lightening, rumbling thunder and gale-force winds.

Batten down the hatches, because it's going to be one hell of a storm.

Footnotes:

* Civitas Society: Founding President: William Gairdner (Reform Party)

Other Past Presidents: Tom Flanagan (Reform Party and Calgary School), William Robson, and Lorne Gunter

Founding Directors: Janet Ajzenstat, Ted Byfield (Reform Party), Michel Coren, Jacques Dufresne, Tom Flanagan, David Frum, William Gairdner, Jason Kenney, Gwen Landolt, Ezra Levant, Tom Long, Mark Magner, William Robson, David E. Somerville (National Citizens Coalition), Michael Walker (Fraser Institute)

Morton Blackwell, Kyle Bristow and Young Americans for Freedom

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

"As long as we, as a society, continue to bury our heads in the sand, hope that all of this nastiness will just go away, ask "can't we all just get along," without getting up off of our apathetic asses, without turning off the damned TV, without allowing ourselves to be duped and hoodwinked by our so-called leaders - we are about as useless as windshield wipers on a cat's ass." Nicole Nichols

I love the above quote from an American blogger who is one of several tracking a new youth movement, that is being legitimized by the Republican Party in the U.S. and the Conservative Party in Canada.

It has been getting very little media attention, especially here, as they are all being treated as isolated incidents. Yet most can be traced to two places. The Leadership Institute under Morton Blackwell and it's Canadian counterpart, the Manning Centre for Building Democracy, who are both training political activists. Karl Rove and Rob Anders graduated from Blackwell's school, so that gives you some idea of what they teach.

But more than simply rabble rousing, many are becoming increasingly racist, sexist and virulently homophobic. Morton Blackwell is also a founding member of the Council for National Policy and of course Preston Manning from the Manning Centre is the founder of the Reform Party. His name is being tossed around as our next Governor General. A BIG mistake!

In the book, The Colour of Democracy, Racism in Canadian Society, the authors point to the Reform Party in particular. After suggesting that the (neo-Nazi) Heritage Front* is not as big a threat since they are small in number, and "...can to a certain extent be ignored ... such thinking is also evident in the doctrines of the Reform Party, who won a substantial number of votes in the federal election of 1993 and who hold 52 seats in Parliament." (1) One of those 52 seats, was held by a man named Stephen Harper.

Young Americans for Freedom

Young Americans for Freedom was created in 1960, as one of the many anti-Communist organizations of the period, and aligned themselves with William F. Buckley. They opposed the civil rights movement, and, in 1962, gave their first annual Freedom Award to segregationist South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond. Though they supported Nixon they were never really partisan, preferring to simply be called conservative and later adopted libertarian policies.

On college campuses they were referred to as the 'Shock Troops', often challenging anti-war protesters, and as the new right wing, counterbalanced the "hippies" who were more prevalent during the period. YAFers wore ties and had trimmed haircuts, but their lapel pins were B-52 bombers in the shape of a peace symbol. Their activism was mostly described as "dirty tricks" and they dubbed themselves the "prankster truth squad".

In 1970 a member of the Young Republicans, who had been touring colleges in Illinois, met up with the YAFs and sought their help with a little scheme. A man by the name of Alan Dixon was running as a Democrat for state treasurer, and was planning a gala event to officially open his campaign office in Chicago.

The Young Republican, using a false name, posed as a supporter to gain access to the campaign headquarters, where he ran off with some official letterhead. With the help of YAF, he printed up 1,000 invitations for the grand opening, giving the correct time and place but adding "Free beer, free food, girls, and a good time for nothing".

They then fanned out and distributed the invitations to a hippie commune, at a rock concert, in a soup kitchen and among the drunks in the Chicago bowery. On the night of the event as guests all dressed to the nines were mingling with the upper class, van loads of the unwashed arrived, destroying the evening for many.

Dixon still won, but when George Herbert Bush, then on the Republican National Committee, got wind of it, he told the Young Republican to immediately go and apologize. But according to Dixon, Karl Rove never showed. It would not be the last time he discredited the party, and under another George Bush, a stunt like that would be child's play.

Kyle Bristow and Young Americans for Freedom

The photo to the left is of Kyle Bristow and Ron Paul. Bristow would become the leader of Young Americans for Freedom at Michigan State University, as the group, which had not been heard much of for some time, now took a new direction.

The Leadership Institute of Morton Blackwell and the Republican National Committee have taken them over and there are now more 20 YAF organizations on campuses across the country, most of them started in the past five years by Leadership Institute-trained activists.

One of them is Kyle Bristow who interned there for a summer, and instead of simple pranks, his activism included organizing a “Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day” a “Straight Power” demonstration to protest a proposed local civil rights ordinance protecting gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender individuals from discrimination, with signs that read “End Faggotry” and “Go Back in the Closet.” He also administered two racist online groups — “True American Patriot” and “Jobs a White Man Won’t Do”.

He also arranged to have controversial figures like Paul Fromm, British National Party Chairman Nick Griffin, and other white supremacists speak on campus. And while such events drew protest, as he knew they would,Kyle believes all press coverage is good coverage, and while 10,000 people who read what he has to say will be disgusted, one or two will be intrigued. He’s using the media coverage to reach those one or two people at a time and that’s what concerns me about YAF, because what he’s articulating is dangerous.” (2)

But there is another reason for this, which I've mentioned in my other posts on the subject. It's something called 'Controlled Controversy' that is taught at Blackwell's training school. When you look at the headlines or heaven forbid, watch Fox (I've only seen the videos on Youtube), the news is always about the reactions, rarely if ever about what caused those reactions. That's how this works. You can get away with anything once you've achieved the reaction you desired in the first place.

Nothing Bristow* or any of the others do, is illegal, but it's troubling, as there is not merely an attempt to shift universities to the right, but also an underlying motivation to make racism, homophobia, etc., acceptable. And though these groups are clearly extreme, the only ones who have been given that handle are the ones who speak out against them.

Another youth group engaged in the same kind of activities, is Youth for Western Civilization, again under the direction of Blackwell's Leadership Institute. They have actually been legitimized by the Conservative Political Action Conference, and debuted there in 2009. Tom Tancredo also helps them out when they need to stir things up. Tancredo was a YAF when he was younger, and is now an outspoken critic of immigration and multiculturalism.

We need to be more diligent and tell university students to watch out for things like this. If their statements or actions are outrageous, they are intended to make you mad, and once you're mad, your reaction becomes the story.

Hate groups are definitely making a comeback in the Right-Wing revolution and are now main-streamed by the Republican/Conservative parties.

Footnotes:

*The Heritage Front belonged to the umbrella group, the Northern Foundation (Stephen Harper was a founding member). Heritage Front leader Wolfgang Droege, was also a member of the Reform Party and was once their Ontario policy chair. He used his members to act as security for Preston Manning when he spoke in Ontario. According to Dr. Debra Chin, Harper himself arranged this.

**Bristow is no longer at MSU but is now considered to be an up and comer in the Republican Party.

Sources:

1. The Colour of Democracy, Racism in Canadian Society, By Frances Henry, Carol Tator, Winston Mattis, and Tim Rees, Harcourt Brace & Company, 1995, ISBN: 0-7747-3255-5, Pg. 24

2. Black Hats on Campus, by David Holthouse, Southern Poverty Law Center, January 16, 2008

3. ‘Right-Wing Youth’ Group Debuts At CPAC, by David Holthouse, Hate on Campus, February 26, 2009

From John Birch to the Tea Parties. The Far-Rightists Have Made a Comeback

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

I mentioned in relation to the Council for National Policy, how one of the founders was Nelson Bunker Hunt, who is now also running the John Birch Society.

I wanted to introduce him for several reasons, but mainly to show the connections to past far-right organizations that have now embedded themselves in the Republican/Conservative parties.

Another founder of the Council for National Policy is Morton Blackwell (1), the man who is behind the Leadership Institute. Preston Manning's Manning Centre for Building Democracy, runs a youth program fashioned after that of the Leadership Institute, which trains young Republicans/Conservatives in political activism, and that horrendous activism is now playing out on university campuses in Canada.

I have a lot more on that to share, but for now I just wanted to make some comparisons to the activities of the John Birch Society and what is happening in the U.S. with the ridiculous Tea Party movement. They have not created a new phenomenon, but simply revised the 1960's Bircher movement, complete with it's rampant racism.

In 1961, Time Magazine published a lengthy expose on the John Birch Society and other similar, that were creating havoc in the country, which brings the whole teabagger's notion of "Obama is a Socialist" nonsense into context.

An attractive Dallas housewife sees little of her neighbors these days. "I just don't have time for anything," says Mrs. Bert Shipp. "I'm fighting Communism three nights a week." In Hollywood Hills. TV Commercial Producer Marvin Bryan spends his spare time working for the local Freedom Club, which is dedicated to opposing "compromisers" in local and national government and to smoking out liberals in the community. Says Bryan: "We don't want to coexist with these people. We don't want our children to play with their children." At a Freedom Forum meeting in Greenwich, Conn., 800 citizens recently paid $5 apiece to sit through a day of patriotic films, speeches on dialectical materialism and attacks on the U.S. State Department, federal income tax, philanthropic foundations and Harvard University. Questions to speakers were written out, explained Mrs. Charles Chapin, one of the meeting's sponsors, in order to screen those coming from Communists who might be in the audience. (2)

At the latest Tea Party rally, and indeed at all of them, they said this of Obama:

"His mother was a Communist. His father was a Communist. His grandparents were socialists. He had Marxist professors. He taught a course in college on Saul Alinsky. He was friends with William Ayers." According to Jackson, another clue that Obama is a Leninist is that he used the phrase "spread the wealth" in his conversation with Joe the Plumber. "That is a direct quote from the Communist Manifesto," she insisted." Except that, in reality, it is not, although 1930s populist Huey Long did promise to "share the wealth." (3)

Robert Welch, the founder of the John Birch Society, lost credibility when he called Eisenhower a Communist. Now this seems to be quite acceptable.

Back to 1961:

These are only a few of the manifestations of a U.S. phenomenon: the resurgence of ultraconservative antiCommunism. Hundreds of groups and subgroups—with such names as Project Alert, Americans for Constitutional Action, Survival U.S.A. and Crusade for American ism—have popped up across the U.S., in some cases springing from nothing to several thousand members almost overnight. More than 100 anti-Communist study groups are being conducted in Dallas alone. Because their membership is sometimes secret and usually heavily interchangeable with other groups, no sure estimate of their strength is possible.

The far-rightists intend to figure in as many congressional campaigns as possible
next year. California's Representative John Rousselot, a member of the John Birch Society, is talking of running for the Senate in the 1962 G.O.P. primary against Incumbent Thomas Kuchel. Arkansas Congressman Dale Alford has already begun to use far-right material in a buildup against Senator J. William Fulbright. Says Indiana's Clarence Manion onetime dean of Notre Dame Law School and a veteran anti-Communist lecturer and writer, who claims to have 350 Conservative Clubs in operation: "I've never seen anything like this. As one who has faced a great many empty seats in recent years. I'd say the whole atmosphere has changed in recent months." No Room in the Middle .... (2)

McCarthyism is definitely making a comeback, and just as in 1961, there is no room in the middle. The Conservative movement has gone to the far-right.

The John Birch Society is now one of the sponsors of the Conservative Political Action Conference, showing that we have come full circle. Do we really want to return to those days?

The rightists rally citizens to their banner in many cases by stressing a belief in nondenominational Christianity as part of their platform. "This war we're in," says South Carolina's Senator Strom Thur mond, "is basically a fight between the believers in a Supreme Being and the atheists." Thus, the rightists' two principal poles of attraction, anti-Communism and religion, are impeccable—and subject to a good deal of emotionalism. But the ultras do not stop there.

... In everything that he finds displeasing in modern society and political life, the ultra sees evidence of Communist plots and subversion. With a dogmatic either-or attitude, he broaches no disagreement. "You're either for us or against us," says James E. Gibson, senior vice president of California's Leach Corp., which makes electronic components. "There's no room in the middle any more." And the ultra, dissatisfied with the current political order, usually works outside normal political channels (2)

You're either with us or against us. Where have we heard that before? "Taliban" Jack Layton can attest to what that feels like.

Sources:

1. The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada, By: Marci McDonald, Random House Canada, 2010, ISBN: 978-0-307-35646-8 3, Pg. 103-104

2. Organizations: The Ultras, Time Magazine, December 08, 1961

3. At the Tea Party Rally: Obama 'the Communist', By Walter Shapiro, politics Daily, May 2010

Controlled Controversy at Dalhousie With Jared Taylor

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

There is a growing trend in this country to challenge our hate crime laws, by inviting some of the most controversial speakers to our universities in the hopes that there will be protests.

And when the inevitable protest happens, the news becomes about that, rather than the message that is being delivered, that got people so riled up in the first place.

Most recently it was Ann Coulter and the "controlled controversy" surrounding her visit became the debate, ignoring the question of whether or not it was OK to Muslim-bait.

What we should have also questioned was why a Danish hate group was sponsoring her visit, and why a member of Stephen Harper's staff was arranging the pre-show party.

Forget that Ezra Levant and David Frum had their fingers it, both bosom buddies of Jason Kenney and Stockwell Day.

These 'free speech' gurus love it when the hateful messages are not directed at them or their beliefs, but when they are they scream bloody murder. George Galloway is an excellent example of that.

However, before Coulter's visit there was another 'controlled controversy" on a University campus, when Jared Taylor, a notorious white supremacist was invited to debate a professor of black studies. Why they purposely chose Dalhousie, I don't know, perhaps it's because there is rather large black community in Halifax.

The organizer, Brian Boothe, claimed that he had hoped that the Dalhousie professor David Devine would win the debate, thereby proving that racism is wrong. Divine was under the impression that Taylor was a legitimate expert, and wasn't prepared to debate a devoted racist, who had honed his skill, by simply not listening to a thing anyone had to say that would contradict his already firmly entrenched opinions.

When word of the debate circulated around Halifax, the public outcry forced the professor to cancel the debate, but Taylor showed up anyway, garnering a lot of media attention, especially when after handing out hate literature on the street corners, he was attacked by a group who clearly wanted him out of town.

In its reaction to Mr. Taylor's brief visit last week, Halifax failed on almost every measure. Prof. Divine did not check his background before agreeing to debate him as an intellectual peer, an omission that later forced him to publicly refuse to debate. The media courted Mr. Taylor, then shunned him, then courted him again, turning a non-story into a near-scandal; and citizens stooped to mob violence and an anonymous e-mail that read: "Next time he comes, we're going to cut off his head." "Must be Muslims," Mr. Taylor said.

Literally overnight, this coincidence of failures transformed a harmless kook handing out fliers in a Maritime snowstorm into the hottest interview in Halifax. He is now hailed on the Internet among like-minded American "paleoconservatives" as a martyr for free speech in the face of aggressive Canadian political correctness. Even the local papers that refused his ads turned around and defended his right to get his message out.

"I felt very sad that someone of the calibre of Prof. Divine, with all the best of intentions, fell into that trap," said Dr. Mock, a psychologist who was once dubbed the "hate hunter" for her expert testimony on neo-Nazi tattoos. "It's an old Klan trick.... They can't be refuted because their lies are propaganda and the arguments are circular and conspiratorial." (1)

See how easily the story shifted from being about a white supremacist visiting Canada and handing out hate literature, to being about the actions of those who protested his racist messages, and Canada's arbitrary laws against freedom of speech.

The situation was handled all wrong and Jared Taylor was made a hero.

The anti-defamation League has actually covered similar situations involving Taylor and the company he keeps. Mobs follow him everywhere, and he knows just the right bombastic comments to fuel their ire. You can listen to the Taylor in the following video.



Jared Taylor and the Leadership Institute

Taylor has been linked with the Youth for Western Civilization movement, funded by Morton Blackwell's Leadership Institute. He regularly gives them a plug in his American Renaissance newsletter.

However, he was also supposed to speak at a conference they were holding at the Institute on race and conservatism:

The forum was titled "Race and Conservatism" and was sponsored by the Robert A. Taft Club, a paleoconservative organization that was run by fellow Leadership Institute member Marcus Epstein. It was held at a satellite building for the Georgetown University Law School in Claredon, Va., having been moved at the last minute from its original location at the Leadership Institute building after calls from the Southern Poverty Law Center and One People's Project gave reason for concern. The panel included Jared Taylor, the editor of the white supremacist American Renaissance newsletter who is planning a conference of white supremacists in the Washington DC area next month, and John Derbyshire of the conservative periodical National Review.

According to a post on the white supremacist website Stormfront* at the time when it was still planned to be held at the Leadership Institute, it was just going to be Taylor and Derbyshire discussing the role of race in policy decisions and the racial future of the Republican party. After the controversy that prompted the Leadership Institute to close its doors to the forum, Kevin Martin of the black conservative organization Project 21 became a last-minute addition to the panel.

Approximately 40 persons attended this forum, the majority of whom, among them a longtime associate of Taylor's, Professor Michael Hart, were well-known in white supremacist circles. Other Leadership Institute members were also in attendance. (2)

We have to be vigilant here, because freedom of speech is one thing, but speech promoting hatred is something altogether different. Someone argued with me once that that our soldiers had fought and died for our freedom, so that we could speak our minds. But I'm pretty sure they didn't enter battle so that we could call each other names. It was hatred that put them on those battlefields in the first place.

Jared Taylor was told that the debate had been cancelled, but came to Canada anyway, with the intent of stirring up trouble. Then when trouble did find him, the media glorified him as a martyr for free speech. There is something fundamentally wrong with that.

Footnotes:

*Stormfront has a hate forum and a radio show that is a favourite with white nationalists.

Sources:

1. How not to handle a genteel racist. Fussing over his last-minute travel plans, David Divine, James R. Johnston chair of Black Canadian studies at Dalhousie University, seems a worldly fellow, not at all the poster child for naivete on racism, By National Post, January 27, 2007

2. HEY JAMES O'KEEFE, ABOUT THAT WHITE RACIST FORUM YOU ATTENDED IN 2006... By Dan Smeriglio, New Rogue's Gallery, January 30, 2010

Give me Liberty or Give me Aaron Lee-Wudrick

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LEAKED TAPE EXPOSES TORIES SPONSORING STUDENT
GOVERNMENT TAKEOVERS AND ATTACKS ON NONPROFIT
ORGANIZATIONS AT CAMPUSES ACROSS ONTARIO

Audio files, photos and transcripts leaked to the website Wikileaks.org has exposed the Ontario Progressive Conservative Campus Association (OPCCA) as hosting workshops dedicated to teaching Campus Conservatives how to take over student governments and defeat perceived enemies including the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) and the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS).

These files and photos, gathered from a series of workshops occurring in early 2009 on campuses across Ontario, provide evidence that, with the apparent support of representatives from both the Ontario Progressive Conservatives and the Conservative Party of Canada, the OPCCA is attempting to covertly influence the political climate of Ontario’s university campuses.

Presenters and participants are caught on tape advocating for the creation of front groups for the Conservative Party to masquerade as non‐partisan grassroots organizations, influencing the political discourse on campus, stacking student elections with Party members, and conspiring to defeat non‐profit organizations because of political differences, all with the intention of hiding their affiliations to the Party in the process.

This apparent attempt by the Conservative to interfere with student governance and undermine non‐profit organizations is ethically troubling. We urge students, journalists, and citizens alike to take action on this issue and keep our campuses free from influence‐peddling by political parties so as to uphold a strong and healthy forum for democracy. (1)

This was especially troubling given the fact that this had already been tried in Ontario, at least as far back in as 2002, when Mike Harris and the OPCCA also tried to take over student unions.

Aaron Lee-Wudrick and the Campus Coalition for Liberty

In the medium term, we want these groups to take over student governments defend against left wing organizations and create new right wing groups ... We also want to change the social atmosphere of the school ... we want the majority of students to leave college more right wing than when they arrived.

This will include hosting speakers and debates, hosting and attending conferences, holding protests and educational events, producing publications, creating social events, and all other activities that will further the organization’s mission. (2)

The above mission statement, however, is not from this new Canadian campus movement, but from it's U.S. counterpart, Youth for Western Civilization.

YWC is funded by the Leadership Institute of Morton Blackwell's, as part of their Campus Leadership Program. According to CLP's director Dan Flynn:

Unlike chapter-based political organizations, CLP clubs are unaffiliated with either the Leadership Institute or each other. According to Blackwell, this trait offers a serious advantage: "No purges." The clubs' independence also comes with the benefit of plausible deniability. "You can get away with stuff that you would take a lot of flak for doing in the College Republicans," (3)

"This will include hosting speakers and debates, hosting and attending conferences": Speakers hosted by the OPCCA include Richard Ciano, founder of the Conservative Campaign University, and former National Vice President and National Councillor (Ontario) for the Conservative Party of Canada. Peter Braid, Conservative Member of Parliament for Kitchener-Waterloo. Ryan O'Connor, 9th VP of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. Kevin Wiener, Student Senator at Queen's University and candidate for National Council of the Conservative Party of Canada, Aaron Lee-Wudrick, Blogger and Campaign Manager for M.P. Peter Braid. Chris McCluskey, Program Coordinator for the Manning Centre for Building Democracy and Nick Bergamini, Student Councillor at Carleton University. (4)

By Aaron Lee-Wudrick's own admission:

"... even though [Ryan O'Connor] was the forced neutral [as Student President] and me as the Tory president, It was all orchestrated obviously behind closed doors, and it actually worked out well because it looked like different groups of stakeholders, like I'm the outsider coming in, and you guys were just the responsible student government and we had other members of council, a guy he appointed to council, he got speaking rights but he wasn't an elected member, but just as another voice at the table, it made it look like there were all kinds of different corners where in fact we were all on the same team. (5)

And Ryan O'Connor confirms:

Pretend the Campus Coalition for Liberty is a large organization ... We had branches at five campuses. Yeah, we had five people; one at each of five campuses. And they're all Tories! ... I founded a chapter of the Campus Coalition for Liberty. It was a guy with a computer and a press release. (5)

Aaron Lee-Wudrick:

If Norman Finkelstein comes to campus, find your allied groups ... get [the Jewish students' association] involved ... if it's a radical feminist who's very pro-choice, [your allies are] going to be the pro-life people on campus.

... Find out what those rules are [for fee referendums], and in some cases that's a pre-issue for you to worry about. So let's say there are no rules. You can, the year before, say you had a three-year-plan, the next year you could -- without mentioning anything about PIRG -- get a referendum process in place which says, if you are able to collect three percent of all signatures of the student body, then you can trigger a referendum. Very few people in the abstract would oppose that, because they'd say "oh, that's a great idea" ... and then, a couple of years later, use it to bring forward the issue ... You will be surprised at what people will sign if you put it in front of them, especially if you put it in benign terms.

... Campus Radicals for Action on Zimbabwe Yes, or something like that, they were a great shell group. Feel free to use Campus Coalition for Liberty, that's ours so we have a logo and everything. You can use it now and it would be like established in 2002 ... we joke about these shell organizations, and some of you might think "well, isn't that a little bit disingenuous? Aren't you just inflating your numbers, isn't that kind of underhanded and sneaky?" My answer to that is no, not really, because that is exactly what the left does ... I'm just trying to level the playing field. (cite?)

... Use groups that might be jealous of what OPIRG gets ... that's how you pitch it, just look up the president of the chess club, and say "hey, how come you don't get money, wouldn't it be fair if we all did?" and build allies that way. (5)

Ryan O'Connor :

When Aaron was doing the petition campaign, which "I knew nothing about;" I was printing them in my frickin office in student government, of course I knew about it, of course we were behind it, I couldn't take a public position on that issue because although I wasn't running for reelection, this was three months before the end of my mandate, that's sort of the picking your battles ... if we had made them an issue, no Tory would ever get elected to student government again ... All the Tory [student] councillors were all voting the same way, and all had the same speaking points, it was really hilarious and really transparent, but you have to do what you have to do. We had a game. (6)

Aaron Lee-Wudrick :

Why do we go to the conventions, right? Sure, there's the all-important constitutional amendment section. But there's also the hospitality suites, right. And that's part of the fun of all this. And there's nothing wrong with that.

... Don't make [your campus club] a partisan organization ... There's ways to get around [the rules] ... start a club called Friends of Liberty or something like that, register with OPCCA as a conservative club. It's a separate registration when you register for the party, you get recognized separately, and then register with the student association.
...
Yeah we had a front group like that: the Campus Coalition for Liberty. It was really just a front for the conservatives, but it gave us like two voices. Two organizations support this, the Young Tories and the Campus Coalition for Liberty, which is the same thing ... Don't think that the Party doesn't like that, because they do. They're things that will help the Party, but it looks like it's an organically-grown organization and it just stimulated from the grassroots spontaneously. They love that stuff.

And they don't have to bear the burden of having any of it attached to their name. Remember all of the Rallies for Democracy* ... that's just an example of how big those things can get. (6)

Aaron Lee-Wudrick was not only, by his own admission, involved in this covert student movement, but he was President of the Legal society. This brings a lot of things into question, especially since this man is also now a lawyer, though one comment on a forum about Aaron after mentioning his profession, claims that he is not a lawyer "in that way" but in the "Liberty" way; so I assume that means constitutional challenges.

You can listen to the tapes here. Just scroll down to the two items with MP3 in brackets.

Footnotes:

* Rallies for Democracy were protests against the proposed 2008 coalition.

Sources:

1. OPCCA workshop on how-to takeover student governments, Wikileaks, March 13, 2009

2. Youth for Western Civilation, Defending the West on Campus, Mission Statement

3. My Right-Wing Degree, By Jeff Horwitz, May 24, 2005

4. LIST OF KNOWN SPEAKERS AND NOTABLE PARTICIPANTS AT OPCCA TRAINING SESSIONS, OPCCA workshop on how-to takeover student governments, Wikileaks, march 13, 2009

5. SELECTED QUOTES FROM AUDIO FILE ", workshop on how-to takeover student governments, Wikileaks, March 13, 2009

6.SELECTED QUOTES FROM AUDIO FILE "shellgame, workshop on how-to takeover student governments, Wikileaks, March 13, 2009

Reviving Mike Harris's Campus Hijinks

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

In 2002, a story broke about Ontario Premier Mike Harris and his government's attempt to infiltrate student governments.

They were pouring a lot of money into political campaigns at several Ontario universities.

The provincial Tories are mounting a province wide campaign to fill student governments across Ontario with young conservatives, The Gazette has learned.

Numerous sources indicate the Ontario Progressive Conservative party has been actively recruiting and funding student election bids in order to fill as many high-profile student government positions as possible.

The campaign is run through the Ontario Progressive Conservative Campus Association, which established the "Millennium Leadership Fund" in 2000 to fund conservative candidates on Ontario campuses. The MLF is largely financed by senior PC members and supporters.

In a series of e-mails to OPCCA members in February and March, OPCCA president Adam Daifallah refers to the fund and touts the success of Tory candidates at a number of universities, including Western, Queen's, Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier and Windsor. (1)

Adam Daifallah went on to become a journalist with the National Post and has co-written a book Rescuing Canada’s Right: Blueprint for a Conservative Revolution, with Tasha Kheiriddin, with a foreword by Mark Steyn.

The book advocates that Canadian conservatives create and fund think tanks and media outlets, and all of the usual strategies of movement conservatism.

"Any student government worth anything with any integrity does not cater to the needs of a political party," said Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance president and USC VP-education Erin McCloskey.

McCloskey said any student who received funding from the PCs has an unfair advantage. "To have this sort of advantage calls into question the ethics of the person running," she said.

"Student unions are not political positions. They are a place where students work together to defend their common interests," said Enver Villamizar, president of the University of Windsor Students' Alliance, where at least one Tory candidate has been elected. NDP provincial secretary Bruce Cox blasted the campaign, saying it pushes the limits of political action.

"If you have nothing to hide, then show it, he said. "I'm a little uneasy about the unfair advantage that is being given to some students because they have chosen to make a political decision. "If I were a student, I would be wondering: if my elected representatives are receiving funding from the PCs, who are they representing when they speak out?" (1)

The Neoconservative government of Mike Harris did not work well for Ontario. He was eventually forced to resign, amid scandals, and when they left office we were stuck with a six billion dollar deficit, that had been cleverly hidden by Jim Flaherty.

There appeared to be no more mention of their questionable activities, until recently, when they teamed up with the federal Neoconservatives, and are apparently pulling the same stunts across the country.

Thanks to a clever student who taped one their 'seminars', we now know that there is a movement to once again fund and support take-overs of student unions.

A series of documents posted on Wikileaks show that the Ontario Progressive Conservative Campus Association, a Tory-connected student group, held workshops at which participants were taught how to take over various student organizations on Ontario campuses.

"Presenters and participants are caught on tape advocating for the creation of front groups for the Conservative Party to masquerade as non-partisan grassroots organizations, influencing the political discourse on campus, stacking student elections with Party members, and conspiring to defeat non-profit organizations because of political differences, all with the intention of hiding their affiliations to the Party in the process," reads a release put out by the anonymous source who posted the documents.

The OPCCA hosted events on campuses in Ottawa, Toronto, and Waterloo that targeted Public Interest Research Groups in particular. (2)

The suggestions from one conversation:

Aaron Lee-Wudrick : Yeah we had a front group like that: the Campus Coalition for Liberty. It was really just a front for the conservatives, but it gave us like two voices. Two organizations support this, the Young Tories and the Campus Coalition for Liberty, which is the same thing ...

Ryan O'Connor : Sometimes you can't attach the party's name to something. You just can't. If it's a really controversial issue on campus or something that might show up in the newspaper, you want to be careful. You just have your shell organization and have the Campus Coalition for Liberty and two other Tory front groups which are front organizations, all of those groups might actually qualify for funding too.

Aaron Lee-Wudrick : Don't think that the Party doesn't like that, because they do. They're things that will help the Party, but it looks like it's an organically-grown organization and it just stimulated from the grassroots spontaneously. They love that stuff. (2)

Promoting youth involvement in politics is a good thing, but encouraging them to set up 'front groups' so that they can increase their funding is not only dishonest but illegal. And for a government to suggest this kind of behaviour speaks volumes for their integrity.

And the fact that they are passing these traits onto future politicians, would not instill confidence in voting for conservatives of any stripe.

I'm creating several pages on the kinds of things that are happening at universities today that should give you pause. Once I have them done, I will posting them as a separate chapter, because they not only use questionable ethics, but many of these groups are promoting hate, through something called 'Controlled Controversy'.

It is a technique promoted by Morton Blackwell's Leadership Institutes's Campus Leadership Program, and copied at the Canadian counterpart school: The Manning Centre for Building Democracy and their Campus Leadership Training Program.

There is nothing democratic in what they are doing and it needs to be exposed. Students have to be on their guard, for what they call "guerrilla warfare", because it threatens to alter the way we think and destroy the values we hold dear, like tolerance and even handedness.

Just after the sources, you'll find a list of related postings.

Sources:

1. Gazette Exclusive- Tories plot to infiltrate student government, By Jessica Leeder, Gazette Staff, March 15, 2002

2. Tory student groups hijack democracy on Ontario campuses, The Dominion, March 12, 2009

The Conservative Movement and Their Infiltration of Student Unions

Preston Manning, Morton Blackwell and a Questionable Youth Movement

..............Ann Coulter and Tom Tancredo

............. Stirring it Up at the University of Manitoba

..............Peter Kent and York University

..............The Tangled Web at Carlton University

Oh What a Tangled Web we Weave From North Carolina to Carleton University

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

A relatively new campus activist group has been making headlines recently in the United States. Called Youth for Western Civilization, they are financed by the Leadership Institute of Morton Blackwell, through their Campus Leadership Program.

And while also aiding Republican campus organizations, Blackwell likes the idea that "You can get away with stuff that you would take a lot of flak for doing in the College Republicans ..." (1)

An example of this was when "University of Miami senior Sarah Canale, whose 'CLP-organized Advocates for Conservative Thought' threw an affirmative action bake sale last year in which the price of a cupcake varied according to the race of its buyer. That it was controversial, she believes, was a victory in itself." (1)

Youth for Western Civilization ran a "controversial" event 'Everybody Draw Muhammad Day’, something Young Republicans would never have gotten away with. Subsequently a Facebook group was started "Against "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" - May 20," which has more than 42,000 members. I'm proud to say that I'm one of them.

And of course in the battle of Facebook pages, another group was started; Against "Against "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day - May 20""

They have 48 members and I'm proud to say that I'm NOT one of them. You can link to their site from the Facebook Group: Freedom of Speech. Now I'm sure this is a noble thing, except that lately groups promoting 'Freedom of Speech' are often endorsing the freedom to denounce Islam, gays and women's rights.

I'm not suggesting that this is the intent with 'Freedom of Speech.' I'm sure it isn't. However, reading some of the comments, it's pretty clear that some people are motivated by that.

And spending only a few minutes on the website of Youth for Western Civilization, it's pretty clear that they are motivated by that. They want to be able to promote ... well Western civilization, which is fine, but it can't be done at the expense of others. The U.S. like Canada, is a nation of immigrants, and not just white immigrants.

Carleton University and the Campus Conservatives

The Manning Centre for Building Democracy, the Canadian counterpart of the Leadership Institute, that was started up with a ten million dollar anonymous corporate donation, also has a Campus Leadership Training Program, that churns out young rabble rousers.

One of them is Nick Bergamini who was recently elected as a Conservative Campus representative on the student council at Carlton University. Nick is no stranger to dirty tricks. In fact he had to be reprimanded during his campaign for pulling out an "old" trick. Creating misleading domain names.

The Chief Electoral Officer has been alerted to the domain name “Cusaonline.ca” which links to a CBC Article dated November 25, 2009 entitled “Students drop Shinerama fundraiser for illness targeting Caucasians” in which you are named and quoted.

This article has obviously been posted in an effort to reach students that mistakenly type in cusaonline.ca instead of going to the cusaonline.com website. The article is supportive of your campaign and as such the Chief Electoral Officer deems it as a form of campaigning. (2)

Conservative MP Mark Warawa's son was busted for this when he created a 'Young Liberal' site with anti-Liberal messages. The senior Warawa stated that he loved his son but wasn't responsible for his actions. A lot of things are done in the name of politics.

However, it's another "controversial" story that I'm interested in.

A Carleton University student who says he was a victim of hate crime is using his experience to try to open people's eyes to racism. Nick Bergamini, 22, says he believes he and his roommate Mark Klibanov were targeted for their political and religious beliefs when they were confronted by a group of men outside a Gatineau bar early Monday morning.

"We were just walking, minding our business and they said ‘Zionists' and they went after us because of our political beliefs and his religion," Bergamini told CTV Ottawa on Tuesday. During the confrontation, Bergamini was punched in the back of the head. As the pair walked along Promenade du Portage towards Ottawa, they were harassed by the same group again. This time the men were allegedly armed with a machete. A Carleton University student who says he was a victim of hate crime is using his experience to try to open people's eyes to racism.

"The guy opened up the window and said, ‘I'm the one who hit you, you effing Jew,'" Bergamini recalled. "They got out and kind of charged at my roommate, backed off and I heard ‘open the trunk,' so I looked right at the trunk to see what was coming out and I saw a big machete." The pair ran and managed to escape unharmed. Although Bergamini is known on campus for his pro-Israel beliefs, he is not Jewish. He now wants to use his experience to spread awareness about anti-Semitism.

"I hope people realize this is the attitude a lot of people have, with things like Israeli apartheid week. They think it's okay to go to the bar, take it to the next level," Bergamini said. "People have to know about this because if it happened to us, it can happen to other students – Zionists, Jews. It's our duty to let everyone know," added Klibanov. Gatineau police are now investigating the incident. Hate crimes in Canada are rare. However, police across the country are paying closer attention to reports of crimes motivated by hate. (3)

Bergamini is known on campus for his pro-Israel beliefs. And of course 'pro-Israel' beliefs is usually code for 'anti-Islam' if you follow this through the religious context. I posted a great article from Israel a while back, and they believe that the Christian Zionists are engaged in the anti-Semitism (the ultimate plan for the Jews during Armageddon), but justify it on the grounds that they don't believe what they believe, and for now it's great for tourism and unlimited military weapons as gifts.

And no I'm not anti-Semitic. Those were the thoughts of a Rabbi living in Israel and others.

I am not saying that Bergamini's story is not true. Far from it. However, as the school has tried to point out, maybe it's time to look at all messages of hate. I would like to know what they meant by "well known" supporter of Israel. The media for the most part mentioned that but did not elaborate. It was obviously an attempt at balanced reporting.

Because there is a real slippery slope here. If we make this about Christians against Muslims or Israel against Palestine (and many of the blogger headlines did say anti-Israel or pro-Palestine attack and several even refer to machetes in the plural), then this becomes something else.

This needs to be used as an opportunity to promote tolerance from both sides.

The Leadership Institute teaches the same principle. Controlled controversy -- making your point in a manner so bombastic that your opponents blow their cool -- is a Blackwell specialty. (1)

The attack was wrong but I'd like to know what exactly was meant by "pro-Israel" religious views and how they were presented on campus, before I'm ready to make this about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Bergamini claims to have known at least one of them. Were charges ever laid or have all Muslims now been tried and convicted in the court of public opinion?

We have to be very careful.

The video is below and what is interesting is that they referenced Ann Coulter and Berganini claims to have been there and says that the protesters took control of the whole thing. However, police reports have since confirmed that Coulter cancelled the event before the protesters got there.

They were also able to take a shot at CBC, who were right to have wanted to listen to other students, so that they know what may have fueled the incident. Because only then can we truly prevent these kinds of "hate crimes" from occurring.

I'm going to try to follow up with this story to see if the man known to Berganini has been identified and if anyone has been charged.



Sources:

1. My Right-Wing Degree, By Jeff Horwitz, May 24, 2005

2. Original document: Nick Bergamini Electoral Violation By: The Charlatan Post, February 5, 2010

Did Peter Kent Interfere With Student Elections at York University?

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

In 2005, journalist Jeff Horwitz went undercover at the Leadership Institute of Morton Blackwell's, and enrolled in a seminar, part of their Campus Leadership Program.

One recent Sunday, at Morton Blackwell's Leadership Institute, a dozen students meet for the second and final day of training in grass-roots youth politics. All are earnest, idealistic and as right wing as you can get. They take careful notes as instructor Paul Gourley teaches them how to rig a campus mock election.

It's nothing illegal -- no ballot stuffing necessary, even at the most liberal colleges. First you find a nonpartisan campus group to sponsor the election, so you can't be accused of cheating. Next, volunteer to organize the thing. College students are lazy, and they'll probably let you. Always keep in mind that a rigged mock election is all about location, location, location.

"Can anyone tell me," asks Gourley, a veteran mock electioneer, "why you don't want the polling place in the cafeteria?" Stephen, a shy antiabortion activist sitting toward the rear of the class, raises his hand: "Because you want to suppress the vote?" "Stephen has the right answer!" Gourley exclaims, tossing Stephen his prize, a copy of Robert Bork's "Slouching Toward Gomorrah." (1)

That is just one of the techniques that would be future conservative leaders are taught at the Institute.

There is no better place to master the art of mock-election rigging -- and there is no better master than Morton Blackwell, who invented the trick in 1964 and has been teaching it ever since. Blackwell's half-century career in conservative grass-roots politics coincides neatly with the fortunes of the conservative movement: He was there when Goldwater lost, when Southern voters abandoned the Democratic Party in droves, and when the Moral Majority began its harvest of evangelical Christian voters. In the 1970s, Blackwell worked with conservative direct-mail king Richard Viguerie; in 1980, he led Reagan's youth campaign. Recently, he's been fighting to save Tom DeLay's job.

Over the last 25 years, more than 40,000 young conservatives have been trained at the institute's Arlington, Va., headquarters in everything from TV makeup for aspiring right-wing talking heads to prep courses for the State Department's Foreign Service exam. Classes are taught by volunteers recruited from the ranks of the conservative movement's most talented organizers, operatives and communicators. (1)

The Canadian conservatives are now hoping to cash in on Blackwell's success and indeed the [Preston] Manning Centre for Building Democracy, also offers a Campus Leadership Training Program. Manning's Centre was started with a ten million dollar anonymous corporate donation, and is fashioned after Blackwell's model. (2)

And with the rise of Conservative party interference in student politics at universities across the country, it's important to expose this new trend.

It's not unusual for a political party to speak to students, but this kind of interference is unprecedented.

Peter Kent and York University

Students at York University cried foul when federal Conservative MP Peter Kent and Ontario Conservative MPP, Peter Shurman got involved with their election, hoping to bring forward a "... conservative, pro-Israeli" candidate.

"The Conservative party has no authority at all for getting involved in student politics and neither does the York administration. We're an incorporated, independent body," charged Krisna Saravanamuttu, who was elected president of the York Federation of Students in the controversial vote. "Prime Minister Stephen Harper's foot soldiers are deliberately interfering with student elections to help candidates more friendly to their policies.""I find it bizarre for a federal minister (Kent is Canada's minister of state for foreign affairs in the mericas) to try to interfere in a student election," said CFS chair Shelley Melanson. "If students were concerned about the election process, there are mechanisms on campus for expressing those concerns."

In one email to Tiffin at 2:14 a.m. the night of ballot counting, Kent's special assistant said he was there on campus and was concerned nobody from the university was monitoring the process. (3)

The campus conservatives had suggested that the election was rigged, but it was not up to the government to step in. The university is mandated to handle these situations. However, this is all part of movement conservatism, where every element of society is dragged in.

Sources:

1. My Right-wing Degree, By Jeff Horowitz, May 24, 2005

2.The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada, By: Marci McDonald, Random House Canada, 2010, ISBN: 978-0-307-35646-8

3. Stop meddling, students tell Tories: MPPs deny they were trying to sway York election results, By Louise Brown, Toronto Star, July 6, 2009

Stirring it Up at the University of Manitoba

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

In April of 2009, democratic reform minister, Steven Fletcher, appeared at the University of Manitoba to discuss the initiatives of his government.

Though sponsored by the Campus Conservatives, his talk was open to all students and was well attended.

However, much to the surprise of the crowd, he spent very little time on democratic reform, but instead attacked the university's student union and the school newspaper.

On Thursday, March 19, the University of Manitoba Campus Conservatives held an open event that was advertised to the public as a talk at the University of Manitoba with the Honourable Steven Fletcher, minister of state (democratic reform). The event was attended by both minister Fletcher and sitting MP for Winnipeg South, Rod Bruinooge. I attended this event in the hopes of hearing about Fletcher’s new mandate on the government of Canada’s opinion on state, and more importantly on democratic reform. Was I ever mistaken.Although towards the end of the forum, Fletcher did answer a select few pre-determined questions actually regarding Canadian democratic reform, the event did not focus on democratic reform as the posters advertised, but rather focused almost entirely on student union politics.

Steven Fletcher sat as UMSU president at the end of the 1990s for two consecutive terms, so clearly, he’s no stranger to the politics on university campuses. But as a representative of the constituents of Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia and as sitting minister for the government of Canada, especially the minister of democratic reform, he has no business in the affairs of independent and democratic students’ unions and federations.

Minister Fletcher, on several occasions, went into rants where he referred to UMSU and the Canadian Federation of Students, my representatives, as a bunch of left-wing crazies, the “loony left,” and “loony tunes.” The minister further went into rants about the free press and independent students’ newspapers referring to the Manitoban as a socialist rag. He then began encouraging young Conservative members to take over students’ unions to promote the Conservative ideology. At several points in his talk, incoming UMSU president-elect Sid Rashid, who was also in the audience, challenged Fletcher on his clearly biased statements regarding current UMSU policies and procedures.

What is the government doing meddling in the affairs of independent and democratic student unions? This is not only offensive but completely inappropriate. ... The recent event held at the University of Manitoba further adds to the damning evidence that the Conservative Party, the current governing party of Canada, is engaged in a national campaign to advance their partisan agenda and undermine the role of democratic student organizations. (1)

The Winnipeg Free Press reported on the incident as students at the University demanded an apology. Fletcher told the paper, "I think Conservative values are student values," Fletcher said. "I was there to speak about the Conservative party and the role Conservatives play on campus. I wasn't asked to be there in a general way." (2)

But this was just part of a trend as members of the Harper government have been encouraging conservative students to take over student unions, infiltrate clubs, and establish front groups to further their cause. This again coincides with Morton Blackwell's Campus Leadership Program which has been mimicked by the Manning Centre's Campus Leadership Training Program.

Blackwell's institute has launched a website, billed as:

“CampusReform.org will dramatically increase the number of battles fought against leftist abuses on college campuses this year,” said Morton Blackwell, Leadership Institute founder and president. “And based on long experience, conservative students will win most of those new battles as they identify, expose, and combat leftist abuses and bias.” “CampusReform.org will dramatically increase the number of battles fought against leftist abuses on college campuses this year,” said Morton Blackwell, Leadership Institute founder and president. “And based on long experience, conservative students will win most of those new battles as they identify, expose, and combat leftist abuses and bias.” (3)

And if you want some idea of what that means, combating "leftist abuses and bias", when University of Manitoba students were engaged in their annual day of protest, with the Target Poverty campaign, campus Conservatives, under the direction of provincial conservative MLA, Hugh McFadyen, did whatever they could to stop the event, even forming a human chain to prevent their progress toward the legislature. They were clearly hoping for a physical confrontation.

Nov. 5 was another student Day of Action in Manitoba. This one was important because it linked issues facing students directly to broader societal concerns with the Target Poverty campaign, as well as linking up the organizations representing students with a broad cross-section of anti-poverty activists and civil society organizations in Manitoba. It’s a new tactic, and it really opens the door to building broad coalitions of activists, student unions, and other civil society organizations to confront the neoliberal* policies which have affected us all over the past couple decades. I would say that it was moderate success, in that new ground was broken and new spaces for resistance were opened up for people from diverse political backgrounds to unite and fight for a better world.

But, the latest Day of Action also featured the sorry spectacle of Hugh McFadyen and the University of Manitoba Campus Conservatives “teaming up”, presumably against students rallying against poverty. Or, as the Campus Conservatives called them on their website, a “army of pinkos”. (4)

"An army of pinkos?" I must admit, I haven't hurt that one in a while.

Apparently the Conservative Party has also been funding student elections and interfering with the democratic process on campus.

... the next big push by the University of Manitoba Campus Conservatives (UMCC)–who are well connected and appear to be well funded–will be to get partisans elected in 201o at the Students’ Union. The UMCC connections reach right to the Federal government via high profile alumni such as Steven Fletcher, current Minister for Democratic Renewal and former Manitoba Students’ Union president. (5)

Well if it means getting rid of "pinkos" who are fighting against poverty, I suppose it's a noble cause.

Footnotes:

*Neoliberalism is also referred to as neoconservatism.

Sources:

1. The True Hidden Agenda: Steven Fletcher's Recent Talk on Campus, By David Safruk, University of Manitoba, The Manitoban, April 5, 2009

2. MP Fletcher's talk stirs campus storm: Cabinet minister rejects apology demand, By: Mia Rabson, Winnepeg Free Pres, April 18, 2009

3. CampusReform.org launches TODAY! By Tabitha Hale, Leadership Institute, September 15, 2009

4. A look at Campus Conservatives in Manitoba, By Brian Latour, Canadian Dimension, November 15th 2009

5. Conservatives poised to make a move at University of Manitoba? Campus Conservative Watch, November 16, 2009

Anne Coulter, Tom Tancredo and Controlled Controversy

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

In April of 2009 U.S. Republican Tom Tancredo was supposed to speak at the University of North Carolina.

According to the Raleigh News and Observer

Before the event, campus security removed two women who delayed Tancredo's speech by stretching a 12-foot banner across the front of the classroom. It read, “No dialogue with hate.”

Police escorted the women into the hallway, amid more than 30 protesters who clashed with the officers trying to keep them out of the overcrowded classroom. After police released pepper spray and threatened the crowd with a Taser, the protesters gathered outside Bingham Hall.

Police spokesman Randy Young said the pepper spray was “broadcast” to clear the hallway. He said officers' use of force was under investigation by the department. But campus visitors and some faculty members in the capacity crowd of 150 urged the students to let Tancredo speak.

The protesters relented, and Tancredo began to speak, describing failed state and federal legislation aimed at providing in-state tuition benefits for undocumented immigrants. Two women stretched out another banner, first along one of the aisles and then right in front of Tancredo. Tancredo grabbed the middle of the banner and tried to pull it away from one of the girls. “You don't want to hear what I have to say because you don't agree with me,” he said.

The sound of breaking glass from behind a window shade interrupted the tug-of-war. Tancredo was escorted from the room by campus police. (1)

Tancredo was a controversial Republican candidate for the presidency. He is strongly anti-immigration and once suggested bombing mosques in the Middle East as a deterrent for another attack on the U.S.

He is also the honorary chairman of Youth for Western Civilization, a group financed through the Leadership Institute of Morton Blackwell. According to YWC there were about 300 protesters at UNC that night, and even the professors were encouraging the students. They also claimed that they threw rocks through windows smashing them. But according to the news report one window to the classroom where Tancreno was speaking, was broken when an over zealous protester pounded on the glass.

He later apologized and was dealt with.

However, given the expected volatile nature of his visit, why did they have him speak in such a small classroom? Why not one of the halls? The university did not try to prevent him from appearing.

It's called controlled controversy and it's one of the techniques taught in the Campus Leadership Training program at the Leadership Institute.

Unlike chapter-based political organizations, CLP clubs are unaffiliated with either the Leadership Institute or each other. According to Blackwell, this trait offers a serious advantage: "No purges." The clubs' independence also comes with the benefit of plausible deniability. "You can get away with stuff that you would take a lot of flak for doing in the College Republicans," says CLP director Dan Flynn. (2)

The Youth for Western Civilization, which has been cited as a hate group, for their pro-white messages, hosted Trancedo because they knew he would rile the student groups. They advertised heavily and deliberately made sure that the venue would not house everyone wanting to attend. Most of the people in the audience were "silent protesters".

When he spoke, they turned their chairs around, so he would be speaking to their backs. Tancredo himself, was the first to make a move when he grabbed the banner the girls were holding up. This angered those outside the classroom and the police had to quiet them with the 'threat' of a tasar which they shot into the air creating an arch.

I saw the video and it was a heated exchange, but not a violent exchange. I believe the only people hurt were the man who accidentally put his fist through the glass and Tancredo when an officer stepped on his toe.

And despite the fact they claimed that the university professors were involved, they were actually trying to quiet the students down and told them to "let him speak."

But it worked beautifully. Because despite the fact that Tancredo's message was against multiculturalism, the news the next day was about the "extreme left wing groups," their violent protests and their attempt to silence free speech. The university publicly apologized and the YWC snickered and high-fived, as they had carefully engineered themselves into becoming the 'victims'.

Anne Coulter and a Little Controlled Controversy

Ann Coulter is the controversial American comedian, in the Howard Stern vein. Her shtick is gay and Muslim baiting.

Popular during the Bush administration , it would appear that she was past her prime. That stuff is only funny to those who find it funny, for a while, and then it just gets tired and old.

But then a group calling themselves the International Free Press Society in conjunction with the Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute, sponsored her visit to three Canadian Universities: Western, Ottawa and Calgary.

Before the Ottawa event, a $250.00 a plate dinner was held for Conservative supporters, sponsored by the Ottawa Campus Conservatives and arranged by Ashley Scorpio, who is listed in the government's electronic directory, as a "... staffer working in the office of Conservative MP Gerald Keddy. She has also worked for Ontario Conservative MP Patrick Brown and was once an administrative assistant in the Harper PMO". (3)

Because of her books and columns, bashing anyone not a neoconservative, the Provost of the University of Ottawa sent Coulter a letter with a gentle reminder that Canada had tougher hate speech laws than the United States, so she should be mindful of that.

Just what her team had hoped for. Ezra Levant went nuts and turned the whole thing into a three-ring circus. According to him there were 2000 violent protesters all after her head. So threatening were they, that poor Ms. Coulter had to cancel the event because the Ottawa police warned her that they could not offer her protection.

Apparently her new shtick is making stuff up, and her side shtick Ezra Levant, played the bumbling clown.

First, contrary to what Coulter seems to suggest in a brief phone interview with Macleans.ca scribe Colby Cosh, it was not the police who "shut it down." I spoke with Ottawa Police Services media relations officer Alain Boucher this morning, and he told me, in no uncertain terms, that it was her security team that made the decision to call off the event. "We gave her options" -- including, he said, to "find a bigger venue" -- but "they opted to cancel ... It's not up to the Ottawa police to make that decision." (4)

It was clearly nothing more than a publicity stunt and a bit of controlled controversy, because the debate became about "freedom of speech, " and not hate-mongering, which was far more damaging, because we are now asked to decide whether or not we think it's OK to bash Muslims.

Because if it had been about free speech, there would have been no trouble with George Galloway visiting. And since we now know that Jason Kenney was directly behind it, the Conservatives and their supporters don't get to play that card.

But what I would like to know is who these people are who arranged her visit, and what they have to do with the Conservative Party of Canada.

The International Free Press Society

Despite the fact that it was determined that Coulter cancelled the event herself, and the biggest threat was that someone jokingly commented that they would like to pie her, the website of the International Free Press Society had this to say:

It is interesting to see the aftermath of Canada’s Ottawa University after an unruly crowd of leftist and Islamic protesters through threats vandalism and intimidation, shut down a planned speech by Ann Coulter.

You can visit their site here if you want to learn more about Ezra Levant. And here. They are definitely fans.

But who are they? Three words: Islamic hate group.

Their founder, the Danish Lars Hedegaard has stated that: "The modern Islamism, which nearly all Danish imams advocates call themselves a religion, but is first and foremost a political ideology in line with communism and Nazism."

You can buy copies of the Danish cartoons from them for $ 250.00 a pop, and presently they are raising funds for the Dutch MP Geert Wilders.

The fiercely anti-Islam Dutch MP Geert Wilders has been traveling through the U.S. this week on a highly-publicised trip to meet with politicians, promote his controversial film ‘Fitna’, and raise money for his legal defence back home.

Although Wilders’s stated goal has been to campaign for free speech, his trip has been sponsored and promoted by an unlikely coalition of groups united primarily by their hostility towards Islam. His backers include neoconservative and right-wing Jewish groups on the one hand and figures with ties to the European far right on the other.

On Friday, he capped his busy week with an appearance at the National Press Club. At the event, he reiterated his calls for a halt to immigration from Muslim countries and pronounced, to raucous applause from the audience, that "our Western culture based on Christianity, Judaism, and humanism is in every aspect better than Islamic culture".

Wilders is also known for campaigning to ban the Koran, Islamic attire, and Islamic schools from the Netherlands, and for proclaiming that "moderate Islam does not exist."

... An event he held at a Boston-area synagogue was sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition, an influential group whose board members include casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, and neoconservative writer David Frum, who attended Wilders’s Friday event in Washington. (5)

Well there you go. David Frum and Ari Fleischer. Both Bush administration alumni and Harper insiders. Frum is a good friend of Jason Kenney, Stockwell Day and Ezra Levant, and his sister Linda, was one of Harper's patronage senate appointments. And we all know Ari Fleischer, who has been given untendered contracts by our government, to help fend off accusations of alleged war crimes.

And the Clare Booth Luce Institute is just kind of a silly Conservative women's group who publish a calendar every year of "Hot Conservative Women".

Boy is the Conservative brand ever in the gutter. Hatred and exploiting women. And they claim to do it all for Jesus. No wonder so many people are turning to atheism.

Continued: Stirring it up at the University of Manitoba

Sources:

1. Protest Stops Tancredo Speech, By Jesse James DeConto, Staff Writer, Raleigh News and Observer, April 15, 2009

2. My Right-wing Degree, By Horwitz, May 24, 2005

3. Ann Coulter and Canada's Conservatives, By: David Akin, Canada.com, March 23, 2010

4. Sorry Ann Coulter, Canada's Just Not That Into You, By Michael Rowe, Huffington Post, March 25, 2010

5. Dutch Foe of Islam Ignores US Allies' Far Right Ties, By Daniel Luban and Eli Clifton, IPS, February 28, 2009