Are Hate Groups Now Legitimized as Part of the Right Wing Revolution?

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

Nelson Bunker Hunt and his brother, William Herbert Hunt, are from a family of billionaires who have seen their fortunes rise and fall. In the 1980's they were charged with irregularities in trading, after cornering the market on silver, and were fined $10 million each and banned from trading in the American commodity markets. (1)

At the time they were forced into a chapter 11 and had to liquidate many of their assets. But once a billionaire, I guess always a billionaire and Nelson Bunker Hunt is once again riding high in the Republican/Neoconservative/Religious Right Movement.

But there are two other groups in particular, that he lends his name to, that are very important to the future of the Right-Wing Revolution: The John Birch Society and the Council for National Policy.

John Birch Society

The Reform Party of Canada adopted a motion at it's inception, to allow right-wing fringe groups to join them. "In short the party leadership was trying to broaden it's right-wing support while not entirely surrendering it's attraction to fringe elements, at least some of whom were present at the Winnipeg Convention." (2)

While the John Birch Society itself did not appear to be much of a major force in Canada, it was part of the "fringe elements" that became associated with Canada's neoconservative movement. Paul Fromm was there in the early days, selling memberships to his anti-immigration group: C-Far*, that is still going strong. He was allowed to set up shop after arranging to have Peter Brimelow speak. Brimelow, now calling himself a paleoconservatist (white supremacist), made such an impression on Stephen Harper that he went out and bought ten copies of his book, The Patriot Game, and gave them to friends. (3)

Fromm has been a lifelong neo-Nazi, fired from his job as a teacher after a video surfaced of him at a Hitler birthday party celebration, giving the Nazi salute to a Confederate flag. He also attended a "Revilo P. Oliver Memorial Symposium" in November of 1994, which was organized by the National Alliance, a large U.S. Nazi propaganda organization, whose leader William L. Pearce was the author of the horrible Turner Diaries, which are said to have inspired the Oklahoma bombing by Tim McVeigh. The ad for the symposium read:

Dr. Revilo P. Oliver was one of this centuries greatest thinkers and writers . . . he was one of the very few academicians to fully perceive the threats to America and to western man. He was one of the founders of the John Birch Society when he realized that conservatism was a lost cause in America, he appealed to Americans to make a final and uncompromising stand for survival of America's founding race, a cause he championed until his death ... These speakers are speaking from the heart and speaking of the greatest issue -the survival of the European race - of this or any other century. (4)

From SourceWatch:

The John Birch Society (JBS) is a conservative U.S. organization that was founded in California in 1958 to fight the threat of Communism. It represents itself as "a membership-based organization dedicated to restoring and preserving freedom under the United States Constitution." It states that its members come from all walks of life and are active throughout the 50 states as part of local chapters. The Society invites all Americans to explore its website, learn more about the John Birch Society, and consider joining with in its mission to achieve "Less Government, More Responsibility, and - With God's Help - a Better World. JBS advocates the abolition of income tax, and the repeal of civil rights legislation.

And this differs from the Reform-Alliance-Conservative platform, how? Harper's National Citizens Coalition had the motto "More freedom, through less government", a motto shared with his Northern Foundation. Sounds a little Birch-ist to me.

And today that same John Birch Society is now headed by Nelson Bunker Hunt and they are a co-sponsor of the Conservative Political Action Conference. This doesn't mean that they are no longer considered to be far-right, but far-right groups have now found a home in the Republican and Conservative parties.

The group that called Eisenhower a communist (5) is now a financial backer of the Republican Party. How did this happen? Nelson Bunker Hunt and the Council for National Policy.

The Council for National Policy

In 1997 Stephen Harper, then President of the National Citizens Coalition, was asked to speak at the CNP Conference in Montreal. Most people at the time had never heard of this secretive group, and it was not without reason. The less that was known, the easier it was for them to operate. So who are they? The conduit between the Religious Right, the Republican Party and right-wing extremist groups. And they set their sights on Canada several years ago, finding allegiance with the Reform-Conservative-Alliance movement.

The relationship between the Republican Party and the Religious Right started in earnest in 1981 with the creation of the powerful insider club known as the Council for National Policy (CNP). Excited by Reagan's election, Tim LaHaye of the Left Behind series, Paul Weyrich*** of the Free Congress Foundation, Richard Viguerie, a wealthy Republican fundraiser, and other far-right conservatives decided to bring together the religious right, the small government/anti-tax right, and several extremely wealthy, like-minded businessmen such as Joseph Coors (whose company recently bought Molson) and Herbert and Nelson Bunker Hunt, rabid anti-Communists affiliated with the John Birch Society.

Their mandate was to influence White House policy and elect far-right and social conservative candidates to office. They initiated the Moral Majority Coalition and recruited Jerry Falwell to run it (Tim LaHaye recently gave US$4-5 million to Falwell for his Liberty University) and later welcomed other religious leaders such as Focus on the Family's James Dobson**** and the current "small government" crowd like Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. (In later years, the CNP reached out to the foreign-policy neo-conservative crowd as well. The organization has hosted speeches recently by UN ambassador John Bolton, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and both Vice President Cheney and President Bush.)

The relationship between the evangelical right and the Republican Party started by the Council for National Policy has not wavered since it was established more than twenty-five years ago. Joan Bokaer, a professor at the Center for Religion, Ethics, and Social Policy at Cornell University, has studied the fundamentalist movement in the United States. Working through fundamentalist Pentecostal and charismatic churches, she reports, the Christian Coalition has promoted right-wing Republican candidates by mailing voters' guides to their constituents — telling them how to vote. Seventy million guides were sent out in the 2000 election alone. Reverend Rick Scarborough, an evangelical Baptist from Texas, has used his pulpit and his organization, Vision America, to help elect conservative politicians and judges for more, than a decade. Vision America has recruited and trained close to four thousand "patriot pastors" ... (6)

And the Council for National Policy confirms Hunt's involvement with this bio:

CNP vice president, 1982-1983; President Executive Committee 1983-1984; CNP Executive Committee 1988, member 1998; Heir of the Hunt Oil Company fortune and financial backer of CNP, CBN, JBS & Promise Keepers** and many more. Chairman Executive Committee 1984 and 1986 World Board of Directors of Here's Life, Campus Crusade for Christ; board member of John Birch Society; Western Goals Foundation principal ... funded Bill Bright's Campus Crusade for Christ donating $15.5 million. In 1967, formed Christian World Liberation Front (CWLF) as a covert front for Campus Crusade, which split off and became a leading ministry in the Jesus People movement ... He once organized a paramilitary force called "Americans Volunteer Group" which he intended to use--death squad style-- against political opponents. Hunt, whose Birch Society background is documented by Conway and Siegelman in Holy Terror, also made a contribution of $1 million to the Moral Majority in 1981 ... Donated $10 million to Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasters Network in 1970.

Nelson Bunker Hunt is said to have partially underwritten the cost of an anti-Kennedy newspaper advertisement that appeared in the Dallas Morning News the day of the assassination. Hunt's oil profits were said to be threatened by Kennedy's announced plans to end the oil depletion allowance. A note written by Lee Harvey Oswald addressed to "Mr. Hunt" has raised speculation as to whether it was intended for the oil tycoon ... (7)

Hunt has not only been legitimized, but is a key player in both the Republican Party and the Religious Right. And the same group are now entrenched in our government.

Footnotes:

*If you scroll down on this C-Far page, about half way is a photo of professor Kenneth Hillborn. He was also an early Reform Party influence and is now one of the financial backers of the Canadian Constitution Foundation, who take on constitutional challenges, mostly against Canada's Health Care.

**Harper backbencher, David Sweet, was the Canadian founder of the male dominated Promise Keepers. They have been described as a cult.

***Paul Weyrich is a godfather of the Religious Right movement. Before the 2006 Canadian election he agreed to tell his people not to speak to Canadian journalists for fear that it might spook the Canadian public if they knew how connected Stephen Harper was with his movement.

****Harper's assistant chief of Staff, Darrel Reid, is the Canadian founder of Focus on the Family. Several of Harper's MPs belong, including Rob Anders and Maurice Vellacott. In 2005 Dobson ran ads on 130 Canadian radio stations against same-sex marriage to help Harper get elected. He was going to run on a traditional marriage platform.

Sources:

1. 2 Hunts Fined And Banned From Trades, By Kurt Eichenwald, New York Times, December 21, 1989

2. Of Passionate Intensity: Right-Wing Populism and the Reform Party of Canada. Author: Trevor Harrison Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995. ISBN: 0-8020-7204-6, Pg. 116

3. Stephen Harper and the Future of Canada, by William Johnson, 2005, ISBN 0-7710 4350-3, Pg. 52

4. FROM MARCHES TO MODEMS: A REPORT ON ORGANIZED HATE IN METRO TORONTO, By Bernie M. Farber, Canadian Jewish Congress, January 1997

5. Organizations: The Birch-Barkers, Time Magazine, April 14, 1961

6. Too Close for Comfort: Canada's Future Within Fortress North America, By Maude Barlow, McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 2005, ISBN: 0-7710-1088-5, Pg. 48-49

7. The Council for National Policy: Selected Member Biographies, Nelson Bunker Hunt

Students For Academic Freedom and Keeping Lists

I posted on the Society of Academic Freedoms as one of the groups trying to shift Canadian universities sharply to the right, through questionable activities; many inspired by Morton Blackwell's Leadership Institute and it's Canadian counterpart: The Manning Centre for building Democracy.

These groups are well financed with strong political connections, and most if not all, get at least some of their funding from their U.S. counter parts, as part of this new Religious Right/Neoconservative assault on democracy and Canadian sovereignty."

Which brings me to David Horowitz, the Students for Economic Freedoms and the Center for the Study of Popular Culture (now called The David Horowitz Freedom Center). Rule of thumb, if it has 'Freedom' in the title, avoid it all costs, because they usually have very little concern for the freedom of anyone not white, male, or of a Judea-Christian background.

Yes women are allowed, but only if they know their "place".

Students For Academic Freedom

Both Horowitz's Students for Academic Freedom and the Canadian version, The Society of Academic Freedoms, belong to a broader group called the The National Association of Scholars, which I'm going to post on separately because their agenda is very troubling. Just to give you a hint this is what SourceWatch has to say: "The National Association of Scholars (N.A.S.) was founded in 1985, was created, according to a report by People for the American Way, " to unite right-wing faculty against 'politically correct' multicultural education and affirmative action policies in college admissions and faculty hiring that take race or gender into account."

And Wikipedia: "The National Association of Scholars (NAS) is a non-profit organization in the United States that opposes multiculturalism and affirmative action and seeks to counter what it considers a "liberal bias" in academia."

I'm also going to present evidence that the notion of a "left-wing" bias is a hoax, and wait until you hear who's behind it. The only man closer to Stephen Harper than George W. Bush. One of the few who still get to call him "Steve". Need more clues? You'll have to wait. (hee, hee)

David Horowitz and the Brown Shirts

In the fall of 2002, Joel Kovel, a long-time professor of social studies and internationally renowned lecturer, published an article, which was edited by the absolutely brilliant Rabbi Michael Lerner, (author of The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right, a must read) in which he pinpointed Zionism as the source of the moral failures manifest in Israel/Palestine. "

Within a few weeks President Botstein summoned him to his office and informed him that his presidential appointment as Alger Hiss professor would be terminated in 2004. Following another Tikkun article a few months later, a college dean, Michele Dominy, suggested at executive vice president Dimitri Papadimitrou's behest that Kovel, then sixty-six years old, should consider retirement. Kovel refused. Subsequently the administration decided to keep him on faculty on a five-year, halftime contract as "distinguished professor," cutting his pay and teaching load by 50 percent while continuing to grant him full benefits. This is the contract the university is refusing to renew when it expires later this year. (1)

On June 8, 2007, Norman Finkelstein, the son of Holocaust survivors who had become an ardent critic of Israel, was denied tenure at DePaul University in Chicago. (2) And:

Fewer people will know the names of four other targets of the Right's attack: Margo Ramlal-Nankoe, William Robinson, Nagesh Rao, and Loretta Capeheart. All four face harassment, threats, or potential removal from their jobs at their universities because they have criticized Israel, defended multiculturalism, and stood up as organized employees in defense of their rights as workers. (3)

And another story:

After weeks of angry protest ... students ....succeeded in having tall, stoop-shouldered Professor Emil J. Gumbel dropped from the faculty. His crime ... was that he had announced in a lecture: "A turnip is better than a war memorial, than a statue adorned by scantily clad ladies.'' Professor Gumbel heard the news at Cornell last week where he was attending the International Congress of Genetics. He was not surprised. "One doesn't become popular," said he. "by saying that a popular policy will lead a country to catastrophe, especially if events have shown it to be true. There is no question that I am a pacifist. The War made me that. And I am an antiFascist. I am in favor of the republic and peace and the welfare of the working class." (4)

The last quotation is from Time magazine, dated September 5, 1932, and is discussing the Brown Shirt, Nazi Party initiative, and just the beginning of their purge of "liberal" academia. They were still weeks away from power, but were powerful all the same.

January 30 1933: Albert Einstein visits the United States. He reacts to Hitler's ascension to power by calling it a ”psychic illness of the masses" and never returns to German soil. He is subsequently dismissed from his position at the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, expelled from the Prussian Academy of Sciences, and stripped of his citizenship.

March 23 1933: Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick submits to the cabinet a new law that would exclude non-Aryans from the civil service, including university professors. The law is passed in final form on April 7th 1933.

April 1933:Twelve professors from various academic fields ask the Bavarian Ministry of Education not to dismiss a Jewish colleague, Munich University philosopher Richard Huningswald. He is nonetheless dismissed. (5)

David Horowitz and "The List"

April 1933: The local Nazi newspaper in Freiburg publishes a list of Jewish members of the university medical faculty. The head of psychiatry provided the list.

April 13 1933: The National Socialist Student Association affixes the ”twelve theses" to university buildings and billboards throughout Germany. The theses denounce Jews, Marxism, pacifism, Freudian psychology, and more. Thesis 7 reads, ”When the Jew writes in German, he lies. He should be compelled, from now on, to indicate on books he wishes to publish in German: "translated from the Hebrew. (5)

David Horowitz wrote a book The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America which has served as a "list" of university professors who must be purged from Academia. His counterpart in Canada, The Society of Academic Freedom, loves the book and promotes it in their newsletter (scroll to page 13).

The "list" has been horrible for anyone who made it, including Caroline Higgins:

Caroline Higgins is 66 years old, and at 5’2” she’s not a daunting figure. Walking on the Earlham College campus last week, she ran into one of her students, a football player who very much towers over her. She mentioned that she was about to be named to a list of the “101 most dangerous academics in America.” Higgins said that her student just started laughing -- and that for anyone who knows her, “dangerous” just isn’t the word that comes to mind. (6)

But do you know why she made "The List"? Because she teaches Peace. Dangerous because she promotes Peace. Do you see the pattern here? Anyone suggesting a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are now "dangerous", but those promoting a nuclear holocaust in the Middle East, are "safe".

Retired university professor Michael Yates has written extensively on the topic and says that he's glad he quit: "At least I did not have to face the nasty right-wing students who spy on their professors and do the bidding of the professional witch hunters who spew hatred on radio talk shows, and television programs."

And just as we didn't realize that the American Religious Right had become such a force in Canada, until Marci McDonald's The Armageddon Factor, this attack on universities is largely being ignored too. I'm exposing as much as I can and identifying who's providing the money. I think I'll make my own list: The 101 Most Dangerous People Who Pull Stephen Harper's Strings in Canada. Catchy, don't you think?

Oh, and "Steve's" Friend:

Several "independent studies" were conducted by CSPC (David Horowitz's Center for the Study of Popular Culture ) .... One of the first studies was conducted by Frank Luntz, Republican pollster and compatriot of Newt Gingrich during the 1994 election engineering. As reported by George Mason University's website, Luntz's survey came into serious question when it was found that "Luntz polled only liberal arts faculties and administrators. And even within the liberal arts, only 12 percent of the respondents were from the more conservative business and economics faculties".... the funding of the experiments Horowitz cites as well as the scientific methods of research used draw each into question. The latest study, published in late April 2005, was funded by the Randolph Foundation, supporter of the Independent Women's Forum, Americans for Tax Reform, and CSPC. (SourceWatch)

Hardly credible.

Do you remember Frank Luntz, the Republican Party trickster who told Harper that the best way to get a majority was to pretend to have an accountability act, natter constantly about lowering taxes and tap into national symbols like Hockey? (7). Frankie still calls him "Steve" and they go waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back. I think they popped their first zit together.

1. Foul Play at Bard? [on Joel Kovel, incl. Middle East Studies Association] Controversy Ensues After College Terminates Kovel (student paper of the CUNY Graduate Center), by John Boy, The Graduate Center Advocate, May 2009

2. Norman Finkelstein Denied Tenure at DePaul, Solomonia, Friday, June 8, 2007

3. The McCarthyism That Horowitz Built: The Cases of Margo Ramlal Nankoe, William Robinson, Nagesh Rao, and Loretta Capeheart, By Dana Cloud, April 29, 2009

4. GERMANY: Brown Trout & Bitterness, Time Magazine, September 05, 1932

5. Features of The Role of Academia In Nazi Germany During and After Heidegger's Rectorship of Frieburg University, The Philospopher of Nazism

6. David Horowitz Has a List, Inside Higher Ed, February 13, 2006

7. Kick the Liberals as they're down: Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government should do its best over the coming year to dig up embarrassing information on the former Liberal administration and portray it as corrupt, a prominent Republican pollster counselled an influential group of Conservatives yesterday, The Ottawa Citizen, May 7, 2006

Society for Academic Freedom and Canadian Constitution Foundation

As progressives are starting to understand, the funding, planning, and coordination of the conservative movement has led to tremendous success in elections and government policy. But another arena of ideological competition has gone largely beneath the radar. An asymmetric political war is raging at universities across the country, and once again conservatives are running circles around progressives.

The campus Left, which is still organized for the most part by students and community activists, increasingly finds itself facing off against seasoned conservative strategists. And while progressive student groups are mostly self-funded, by the mid-1990s roughly $20 million dollars were being pumped into the campus Right annually, according to People for the American Way.

That money and expertise are directed at four distinct goals: training conservative campus activists; supporting right-wing student publications; indoctrinating the next generation of culture warriors; and demonstrating the liberal academic "bias" that justifies many conservatives' reflexive anti-intellectualism. (1)

In the United States much of this movement is being orchestrated by Morton Blackwell and the Leadership Institute. In Canada, it is the Manning Centre for Building Democracy, which was started with a ten million dollar anonymous contribution. What Manning is operating is anything but democratic, as he is stirring things up in a very negative way, at university campuses across the country.

The U.S. movement has had a thirty year head start, but in Canada they didn't need a head start, because most of the funding and expertise for the Canadian anti-Democratic movement is being shipped over.

I've been following the Canadian Constitution Foundation, that gets a great deal of funding from places like the Donner Foundation, Atlas Foundation, Aurea Foundation, etc., as well as from anonymous donors, who could be just about anybody.

The founder, John Weston is a Harper MP, and the current director, John Carpay; not only ran for the Reform Party but also worked on Stockwell Day's leadership campaign. They claim to take on "free speech" issues, but they have little to do with actual free speech, but more to do with an attack on common decency.

In a kind of upside down world, that they strive to create; Christian "values" now mean hatred for anyone not white, male and praying to some vengeful god at least 18 hours a day, and groups like CCF are paving the way.

But there is another group also turning Canadian Academia on it's head: The Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship. Their founding president is Doreen Kimura, a professor at Simon Fraser University. Kimura is a critic of affirmative action, and believes that males are biologically superior to females.

When I first found their site I was encouraged, because I noticed that they had taken up the cause for York University students. But alas, they are just another right-wing "non-partisan" group promoting nuclear holocaust in the middle east. They suggest that York has taken sides in the conflict against Israel. These so-called scholarly minds feel that by objecting to Apartheid in Gaza, you are somehow against all Jews.

Tom Flanagan is one of their directors, Stephen Harper's former right-hand man. You can also link to all of their campaigns here.

They are quite clever though, because they use an opinion piece written by David Frum to validate their claim that York is bias. Frum is a former speech writer of George W. Bush, his sister Linda was a Harper patronage senate appointment and he is one of the founding members of the Civitas Society. The Civitas Society where the current president of the Society for Academic Freedom, Clive Seligman, was invited to help answer the question "Can the universities be saved?"

I'd like to know if they can be saved from people like Clive, but I don't think that's what they meant.

Jason Kenney is also a founding member of Civitas. For those who don't know, Kenney and David Frum were Siamese twins, separated at birth, but they still speak with just one voice. It's uncanny really. You barely see Frum's lips move.

We've got to start exposing these groups, that all have ties to the Harper government. Peter Kent tried to interfere in York University elections. Steven Fletcher attacked the student newspaper in Manitoba, Peter Braid tried to teach students at Carleton how to cheat the University out of money.

As Joshua Holland says, these right-wing student activist groups are being handled by seasoned conservative strategists. But they are also being funded by corporate sponsored think tanks and foundations, and are linked to current members of government. Progressive students are on their own, and ill prepared to handle this assault.

Their best defense is to ignore them, but they are aggressive. When students at the University of Manitoba were engaged in a day of protest against poverty, campus conservatives, under the direction of provincial conservative MLA, Hugh McFadyen; formed a human chain to prevent their progress toward the legislature, hoping for a physical confrontation.

These guys are not fooling around.

Sources:

1. Why Conservatives are Winning the Campus Wars, by Joshua Holland, Campus Watch, August 7, 2005

Canadian Constitution Foundation and the Federalist Society Attacking Universities

I've been writing a series of articles on the Canadian Constitution Foundation, Morton Blackwell's Leadership Institute and the Manning Centre for Building Democracy, who have joined forces to attack Canadian universities, partly through student associations.

It first came to my attention after reading the blog of an American woman who had been covering this phenomenon in the U.S. and in particular a group called Youth for Western Civilization. This "youth" group is funded by Blackwell's Leadership Institute, and engage in something he teaches called "controlled controversy".

Budding journalist Jeff Horwitz went undercover, I guess you'd say, attending one of their seminars and wrote an article My Right-wing Degree: How I learned to convert liberal campuses into conservative havens at Morton Blackwell's Leadership Institute, Alma Mater of Karl Rove, Ralph Reed, Jeff Gannon and two Miss Americas. (1)

Rob Anders is also a graduate of this school, and according to Marci McDonald in her book The Armageddon factor (2), about 700 other Canadians, including several of Harper's MPs, have passed through their halls. I'd be willing to bet that Pierre Poilievre and John Baird were graduates, though it's only speculation, based on their actions. Baird's latest outlandish display during the committee hearings into the Jaffer/Guergis affair, is pure Blackwell.

I really wish Canada had more of an actual media, because there is definitely a story here, and it's very troubling.

Not long after perusing the blog of the concerned American, I came across an article from a university newspaper, telling of an incident at Carleton. Someone attended a workshop there armed with a tape recorder, and exposed the fact that through Manning's centre (the Canadian offshoot of the Leadership Institute) there was an aggressive attempt to infiltrate student unions to shift them to the right.

In order to do this they suggested ways of obtaining funding by setting up "front" groups that would become part of a central organization. In doing this they could illegally, or at least unethically, obtain more funding (eg. five groups, five separate fundings for one organization)

Since I first started to unravel this, I've had several people contact me, all from the United States, because Canadians are still asleep at the wheel it would seem, and on Friday hit the mother lode. Pages and pages of research based primarily on the rift within the Catholic church between orthodox and modern teachings (part of it concerned Jason Kenney, which I blogged on yesterday)

Everything sent is a matter of public record, so there's no "deepthroat" thing going on, but I think we have to start taking this seriously. I printed everything off and started googling a bit, and they are definitely onto something.

I am currently reading Donald Gutstein's book Not a Conspiracy Theory*, in which he outlines the numerous think tanks and federations that currently back up Harper's Reform-Alliance-Conservative movement. And it is indeed not a conspiracy theory, as he simply follows the money. So I've been doing the same with this new "youth" movement, and when following the money, they are clearly very well financed.

And I suppose it shouldn't come as any big surprise that the same people who are funding the U.S. movement, are also throwing money around in Canada, as part of what is now called the "Religious Right"; not so much a divine mission, as it is an unholy crusade.

Controlled Controversy

Controlled controversy -- making your point in a manner so bombastic that your opponents blow their cool -- is a Blackwell specialty. (1)

John Carpay who is at present the director of the Canadian Constitution Foundation (I've been told by CCF that he will be stepping down) had worked on the leadership campaign of Stockwell Day (along with Jason Kenney) when he was running against Preston Manning in 2000.

Carpay was upset that Manning and his team were attacking Day's religious beliefs, including the comment that there was a "Jim Jones Kool-Aid"** thing going on. (3) Carpay lashed out: "I'm upset at the negative campaigning, but I hold Preston Manning responsible. He wears a fake halo and pretends to be innocent. It's rather sickening." (4)

Carpay is not alone in suggesting that Manning is not as innocent as he likes to let on. McDonald in her book suggested that he was difficult to pin down, and that is not by accident. I've read his books, and it's more about what he doesn't say in them. For instance, little or no mention of the Fraser Institute, and none of the National Citizens Coalition, despite the fact that the Reform Party would never have been as successful as they were, had it not been for these two organizations.

In fact, it was his father, Ernest, who convinced Colin Brown, founder of the NCC, to start it up in the first place. Up to then he had only placed ads in major newspapers attacking Tommy Douglas and Medicare. It was also his father who suggested that they register themselves as a non-profit, to enjoy the tax breaks, and Ernest Manning was on their advisory board. (Stephen Harper was president of the NCC before stepping down to run for the Alliance leadership in 2002. He also ran against Stockwell Day and attacked his socon groupies)

Manning and Carpay have obviously mended fences because the Manning Centre awarded him recently with the Pyramid Award for Ideas, neoconservative jargon for dismantling Canada.

Recent examples of "controlled controversy" in Canada include York University, where a group of young Conservatives burst into the screening of a film during anti-Apartheid (Israel) week, laughing at dead Palestinian children. Just bombastic enough to garner the desired response. It worked as headlines blamed York students and Jason Kenney referred to their reaction as a "pogrom", despite the fact that there was no blood and no massacre. Since then no university is even allowed to put up posters advertising the event. Ironically CCF is not taking on their case.

Another was at the University of Calgary where young Conservatives displayed anti-abortion posters depicting aborted fetuses and swastikas. They were not made to take them down only turn them away from the street. CFF handled the case, and are reporting a victory.

If anything the bombastic posters stripped the group of any legitimacy, but that was not the intent. What we have now is an administration that will give this group more leeway, fearing reprisal and negative media reports. So what will they do next? Tack an actual aborted fetus to the wall? I can hardly wait.

I already have a thread started with the incidents at Canadian universities, but am starting another here showing how they directly connect to their American counterparts. One thing that screams out at you can be seen on page 5 (you will have top scroll down to it) of a 2008 report by the Canadian Constitution Federation. There is a photo of John Carpay sitting beside Eugene Meyer, president of the Federalist Society in the U.S., an arm of the Council for National Policy.

If you want to see a power broker, the Federalist Society is one of the top. (5) Remember the Monica Lewsinsky scandal and the attempt to impeach Bill Clinton, headed by Kenneth Starr?

"Ken Starr, the sober-faced lawyer who headed the independent counsel investigation leading to the impeachment of Bill Clinton ... Starr, 63, served as solicitor general under President George H.W. Bush and was later appointed independent counsel for an investigation of Clinton that eventually looked into the president's relationship with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The Senate acquitted Clinton after the impeachment charges were brought by the House. Starr, a constitutional lawyer and member of the conservative Federalist Society, was reviled at the time by Democrats who called his inquiry a witch hunt." (6)

Now do you remember the 1997 speech that surfaced during the 2006 election campaign, that many believed cost Stephen Harper a majority, and saved Canada from total destruction? It was delivered at a conference for the Council for National Policy in Montreal where they passed a motion to try to find some way to impeach Bill Clinton. (6)

And you don't think this group is capable of getting a foothold in Canada? Will we hear John Carpay say "Just Watch Me"! Come on people, wake up. The CCF is not just a nice little legal group "defending free speech". They are organized and well financed. And a lot of that financing can be linked to the Republicans and the American Religious Right, which are now one and the same.

McDonald's book The Armageddon Factor was only a tip of the iceberg, because for every CCF out there, there are dozens of other groups, many of them "fronts", enjoying tax free status by claiming to be non-partisan and not for profit. Neither claim is true. They are very profitable and the staff moves back and forth from the organizations to Harper's parties in all of their manifestations. And I can prove it.

AND THIS IS NOT A CONSPIRACY THEORY!!

Footnotes:

*Not a Conspiracy Theory: How Business Propaganda Hijacks Democracy, By Donald Gutstein, Key Porter Books, 2009, ISBN: 978-1-55470-191-9

**In November of 1978, the world was shocked by the suicide deaths of 913 members of the People's Temple cult. Jim Jones, the leader of the group, convinced his followers to move to Jonestown, Guyana, a remote community that Jones carved out of the South American jungle and named after himself. Jones constantly feared losing control of his followers. His paranoia was the main reason he moved the cult to Guyana.

The mass suicide occurred after U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan of California and a team of reporters visited the compound to investigate reports of abuse. After some members tried to leave with the congressman's group, Jim Jones had Ryan and his entourage ambushed at the nearby airstrip. He then ordered his flock to commit suicide by drinking grape-flavored Kool-Aid laced with potassium cyanide. (Don't Drink the Kool-Aid, By: Todd Strandberg)

Sources:

1. My Right-Wing Degree, By Jeff Horwitz, 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, Pg. 104

3. Requiem for a Lightweight: Stockwell Day and Image Politics, By Trevor Harrison, Black Rose Books, 2002, ISBN: 1-55164-206-9, Pg. 62

4. "Manning Backer Drops Bid to Woo Social Conservatives, National Post, July 5, 2000

5. Debating the Subtle Sway of the Federalist Society, By Jason DeParle, August 1, 2005

5. Clinton Nemesis Ken Starr to Head Baylor University, By Tom Diemer, Poltiics Daily, April, 2010

6. Bill Clinton's Washington, Unzipped: 'The Death of American Virtue' is a cautionary tale of justice and libidos out of control, By Rafe Mair, The Tyee, June 4, 2010

Is Money Corrupting Religion?

The late Charles Templeton (1915-2001), evangelical turned agnostic; wrote a book Farewell to God: My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith. In it he describes his journey from a popular Christian crusader, and colleague of Billy Graham, to his eventual abandonment of organized religion.

At a stage in his life when he was beginning to have doubts about his faith, he went to his friend Graham, expecting some spiritual guidance.

He asked him how he could accept creationism as 'fact' when there was irrefutable evidence that the world had evolved over millions of years. Graham, an intelligent man, told him "I've discovered something in my ministry: when I take the Bible literally, when I proclaim it as the word of God, my preaching has power." (1)

So even if Billy Graham, the scholar, pondered the scientific proofs of evolution, he chose to focus his beliefs on the words in an ancient text, because it was better for business.

Templeton and Graham would eventually part ways, but not because Templeton was losing faith, but because he exposed the enormous amount of money that TV evangelists were pocketing from the collection plates.

He would eventually become an agnostic, because he realized that there was no single god, who was the true God. "We worship the gods of our predecessors." (1)

I often say that the Religious Right has inspired me to become a born again atheist, but I suppose I'm an agnostic, because I do believe there is something bigger than us. But if there is indeed a God, I doubt he'd be pleased that the so-called Christian Conservatives have abandoned him to worship on the alter of the almighty dollar.

Show Me the Money

Classically Liberal, a Libertarian blogger, tells the story of Bob Sirico, once a gay rights activist, and now a Catholic Priest. According to Joseph Bast of the Heartland Institute:

One often hears priests, preachers, and rabbis endorse an activist government able to solve social, economic, and perhaps even moral problems. Fr. Sirico offers a powerful challenge to this conventional wisdom. Religious principles, he says, require that men and women be free to practice virtue or vice, and freedom in turn requires a limited government and vibrant free-market economy. (2)

What the hell? I don't remember that in my Catechism. According to 'Classically Liberal', Sirico was given money from the Atlas Foundation and several other right-wing groups, to start up the Acton Institute, a right-wing think tank, run by a priest who believes in the faith of a free-market economy. Just what god is he following? Nieman-Marcus?

Atlas was, and is, a major sponsor of the Acton Institute run by former faith healer, evangelical, gay community organizer, and now Catholic priest, Bob Sirico. Sirico ran fundamentalist faith healing meetings until he came out as gay. Then he moved on to the Metropolitan Community Churches and started running the Gay Community Center in Hollywood ... He was also one of the first ministers in the country to perform gay marriages as early as 1975. Sirico’s outfit started out as an organization that was going to sell free market ideas to the religious community.

Acton officials got heavily involved in the debate on gay marriage. With Sirico back in the closet (though some conservatives don’t think so) the position they have been taking has been to pander to bigots on the Religious Right.

.... All of them forget that their beloved Father Bob performed same-sex marriages. And in one press interview at the time Sirico told the reporter “I’m hoping to be married to a beautiful man in Los Angeles whose work is translating for the deaf.” By 1977 Sirico was listed by the LA Times as the “organizer of Libertarians for Gay Rights. (3)

Apparently the good father Bob is still living a gay lifestyle, while telling his followers "not to comply with rules and laws forcing them to accept abortion, same-sex marriage and other matters that go against their religious consciences." I guess hypocrisy is now a virtue.

Classic Liberal believes that this trend began when the Atlas Foundation abandoned it's original Libertarian ideals and began preaching the gospel of the wealthy Templeton family.

Over the years institutions evolve, change or slide away from their original purpose. It is inevitable, sometimes good, and sometimes not so good. One depressing change in recent years is with the Atlas Foundation. Atlas began as a libertarian-oriented, free-market foundation that was there to help think tanks around the world with similar purposes.But in recent years Atlas has begun to heavily rely on one specific donor or family, that is the money coming from John Templeton’s foundation or estate. As they have taken millions and millions from Templeton they started pandering to Templeton’s religious bias and prejudices. (3)

One group that falls under the virtue of hypocrisy and the Atlas Foundation, is the Canadian Constitution Foundation. Started in 2002, by a devout Religious Righter, John Weston, they take on cases that challenge the Constitution, in hopes of creating "a limited government and vibrant free-market economy", as handed down from God as the eleventh commandment.

But just in case we doubt they are devout, they will end abortion, same-sex marriage, and pass laws that allow us to call each other horrific names. Which brings me to the twelfth commandment: "Thou shalt abandon common decency and basheth all gays."

If you go to their website and read their mission statement, they lie and steal in the first paragraph. First off they claim to be non-partisan, despite the fact that their new chief, John Carpay was a long time Stockwell Day supporter, and is currently part of the Fraser Institute and the Manning Centre, both duct taped to the Reform-Alliance-Conservative movement. (did I mention that their founder, John Weston, is a Harper MP?)

And the fact that they are listed as non-profit, meaning they escape paying taxes, but have money seeping from their pores, brings me to the thirteenth commandment: "Thou shalt fooleth some of the people, some of the time ..." Amen.

Sources:

1. Farewell to God: My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith, By Charles Templeton, McClelland & Stewart, 1996, ISBN: 0-7710-8422-6, Pg. 7-8

2."Religion and Freedom." Heartlander. By Joseph Bast, Heartland Institute. January 1, 2007

3. Conservative money corrupts libertarian thinking, By: Classically Liberal, February 19, 2009

Canadian Constitution Foundation: Follow the Money to Racism?

In 1971 a student newspaper, the Ubyssey, ran a story about a university professor who had made some seemingly racist comments to a local paper, resulting in calls for his dismissal.

A stormy controversy involving charges of racism against a history professor has erupted at the usually placid University of Western Ontario. Things came to a head Wednesday night when professor Kenneth Hilborn invaded a students meeting discussing demands for his dismissal and was involved in a scuffle with one of his denouncers .

The demands for the firing of the tenured professor arose from an article he had written, which appeared in the London Free Press. In this article Hilborn attacked those who support what he termed "terrorists" in South Africa . He said that the best way to end the apartheid system in that country was by a process of "erosion" . This could best be accomplished, the article went on, by increasing the prosperity of the white ruling class in South Africa . (1)

One of the first rules when covering a story is to follow the money, and in following the money to the Canadian Constitution Foundation*, one of their financial backers is Professor Kenneth Hillborn, an early Reform Party member who was (is?) on the president's counsel of the National Citizens Coalition**. He was also involved with a group called the Canadian South-African Society.

"The 300 members of CSAS (Canadian South-African Society) were mainly from large corporations, but there were also academics, churchmen and a Quebec Superior Court judge. One of these is Professor K.H.W. Hilborn of the University of Western Ontario on London. He was on the board of directors and is a regular contributor to the right-wing foreign affairs magazine 'International Conservative Insight.' He is one of the people honoured in the Northern Foundation's Northerner magazine, and is on the president's council of the National Citizens Coalition. A recent member of the Reform Party, Hilborn hopes Reform foreign policy will be fleshed out with all this orientation towards the likes of the ANC (Nelson Mandela's party) with it's strong Communist component ... foreign aid should go only to countries not practicing socialism ..' (2)

The Northern Foundation was a vanguard group set up to establish a network of far-right organizations, born out of Reform's decision to allow extremists to join their party.(3)

"... the Northern Foundation was the creation of a number of generally extreme right-wing conservatives, including Anne Hartmann (a director of REAL Women), Geoffrey Wasteneys (A long-standing member of the Alliance for the Preservation of English in Canada), George Potter (also a member of the Alliance for the Preservation of English in Canada), author Peter Brimelow, Link Byfield (son of Ted Byfield and himself publisher/president of Alberta Report), and Stephen Harper." (4)

What the Canadian South-African Society, of whic Hillborn was a member, did, was defend apartheid in South Africa:

"(CSAS) was founded to bring together Canadian and American subsidiary business interests in South Africa ...Their profit levels are high - often twice their returns in companies ventures in Canada - due to their ability to pay low wages and almost no benefits to black labour.' (that's what this was really about)
"Most of the thirty member board are from Ontario ... a few were from the west ... one of these was Norman Wallace of Saskatoon ... a founding member of the Reform party ... He set up Eagle Staff Import Export Ltd. to further business ties with South Africa.

"Wallace created considerable controversy in 1987 when he and others involved in a group called the Indian Business Development Association put up money for a South African tour for five Saskatchewan Indian leaders ... intended to give the Pretoria regime a public relations weapon - using aboriginal conditions in Canada to demonstrate the Canadian government's hypocrisy. (5)

Besides being a staunch defender of South African apartheid, and defender of whites to make money, Hillborn has also, like the CCF, been an advocate for "free speech." He has had a long association with people like Paul Fromm***, and his book; The Cult of the Victim: Leftist Ideology in the '90s, can still be purchased on Fromm's C-Far website. In fact Paul Fromm wrote the preface.

Hillborn has also fought diligently against the rights of First Nations, which has earned him a spot on the Nizkor list of those associated with hate groups.

In 1997 when there was a move to make the title of "Masters' more gender neutral, Hillborn spoke out against it.

A second motion was also passed which, if accepted by Senate, would allow current Western masters degree holders the option to change their degree to a magisteriate. "It's a non-existent word for a non-existent problem," said Kenneth Hilborn, Western history professor and Senator. "[Magisteriate] is not in any established dictionary. It's feminist clap-trap." (6)

"Feminist clap-trap". I like him already

I do support the right to free speech and academic freedom on campus, but it's important to expose the money and power behind many of these organizations, like the Canadian Constitution Foundation, who back up the Reform-Alliance Conservative movement.

Is their fight for freedom of speech part of an advocacy group that would allow organizations like C-Far to attack our immigrant communities? Many of the groups that fell under the Northern Foundation umbrella were actually neo-nazi. Will this open the door to overt anti-semitism?

There was a reason for the adoption of human rights commissions, and people like John Carpay, Ezra Levant, John Weston and even Dr. Hillborn, need to understand what they were. These ridiculous lawsuits and constitutional challenges threaten to change who we are as Canadians.

It's time to start fighting back against groups like the CCF.

Footnotes:

*The Canadian Constitution Foundation was the brainchild of Reform-Conservative MP John Weston. He stepped down as the head of CCF to run as an MP, and Reform-Alliance-Conservative insider, John Carpay has taken over the reins. "The Ontario Health Coalition described the CCF as an “extremely right-wing” legal advocacy group that uses the Charter of Rights to promote a conservative agenda, including the end of medicare. "In 2005 Weston talked to the Calgary Herald about his counter intuitive approach to the Charter, which has typically been praised by the liberal-left and attacked by the political right. “It’s here, there’s not much point in wishing it weren’t. Now, we need to make it mean what it is supposed to mean,” Weston told the Herald. “Conservatives must reclaim it for conservative values.” "To that end, the CCF and Weston fought the federal Liberal government in the courts, challenging the Nisga’a Treaty ... The CCF is also funding a class action legal challenge to medicare in Alberta and an individual action in Ontario."" (7)

**The National Citizens Coalition is a rather secretive right-wing advocacy organization, heavily financed by corporations. They were initially established to put an end to Canada's medicare system. Stephen Harper has been a member for three decades and has served as both it's president and vice-president.

***Paul Fromm was a Toronto high school teacher who was fired when a video surfaced of him at a Hitler's birthday celebration giving a Nazi salute to a Confederate flag. He was allowed to sell memberships to C-Far at Reform Party assemblies.

Sources:

1. UWO Prof Attacked as Racist, The Ubyssey, University of British Columbia, November 23, 1971

2. Preston Manning and the Reform Party. Author: Murray Dobbin Goodread Biographies/Formac Publishing 1992 ISBN: 0-88780-161-7, pg. 104

3. Of Passionate Intensity: Right-Wing Populism and the Reform Party of Canada. Author: Trevor Harrison Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995. ISBN: 0-8020-7204-6, Pg. 115

4. Harrison, 1995, Pg. 121

5. Dobbin. 1992. Pg. 100-107

6. Fighting for an option to be no one's master, By Kevin Gale, University of Western Ontario Gazette, March 21, 1997

7. New MP profile: West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea-to-Sky's John Weston. Vancouver Sun. October 18, 2008

John Carpay, John Weston and Their Attack on Canada: Shona Holmes

John Carpay is the co-founder of the Canadian Constitution Foundation, referred to by Equipping Christians for the Public Square Centre (ECP) as "Canada’s leading organization fighting the enemies of freedom in Canada’s courts." Up until recently, ECP's director was Timothy Bloedow, legislative assistant to Maurice Vellicott.

Carpay has been a long time Stockwell Day supporter, and is part of his Reconstructionism team. Though he once ran as a Reform Party candidate but lost, his partner and co-founder of CCF, John Weston, is now one of Harper's MPs, and like Harper, these men and CCF are committed to demolishing Canada's Health Care system. To do this they take on constitutional challenges, including that of Shona Holmes. (1)

The Mysterious Case of Shona Holmes

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is one of the groups behind the organizing of the infamous and band of the ignorant, Tea Party rallies in the United States. Funded primarily through the Koch foundation, a conglomerate with holdings in oil and gas, chemicals, minerals, ranching, and securities, they have also launched campaigns against climate change, regulating the tobacco industry and the size of government.

Their Director is Art Pope, an ex-legislator who has been dubbed "The Knight of the Right". Pope has created several "organizations to sway public opinion, monitor the legislature, develop grass-roots political efforts and bring court challenges" and he has spent "millions of dollars on a network whose purpose is to move North Carolina to the political right." His goal was to purge the North Carolina state House of Representatives of Republican moderates. (2)

In mid-2009, Americans for Prosperity launched an advertising and advocacy campaign opposing U.S. health care reform: Patients United Now. According to talk show host Rachel Maddow:

They're experts at fake grassroots campaigns that promote corporate interests. Americans for Prosperity is the group that ginned up anti-stimulus rallies earlier this year. They also organized what they called the "Hot Air Tour" to campaign against the whole idea of global warming. They were the ones who sent Joe the Plumber around the country to rail against the Employee Free Choice Act, which is pro-labor legislation.

One other thing about Americans for Prosperity, their most visible spokesman, is a man named Tim Phillips. He is the President of the organization and we've asked him to come on the show to talk with us about the group. Tim Phillips got his start in fake grass roots with a firm called Century Strategies, run by Ralph Reed. Century Strategies is famous for having duped Christian groups into lobbying for energy deregulation. You know, like the Bible said.They were doing that at the behest of Century Strategies' client, Enron. Tim Phillips and Ralph Reed were later made even more famous in the Jack Abramoff scandal, for duping Christian groups into lobbying against gambling. But only in areas where these guys happened to have competing gambling interests as clients.These guys are the pros. (3)

And of course much of the funding comes from Koch Industries through a network of think tanks and non-profit groups.

John Carpay, who is also involved with the Fraser Institute and Preston Manning's the Manning Centre for Building Democracy, is a regular speaker at an affiliate of Koch, the Atlas Experience, where like Stephen Harper, he preaches to the American conservatives on the evils of the Canadian identity.

So who better to call on when they wanted to launch another "fake grassroots campaign", than their buddy John Carpay and his Canadian Constitution Foundation, and he knew just who would be up for the job. An Ontario woman named Shona Holmes, who claimed that had she not gone to the U.S. for surgery, she would have died. Did I mentioned that she "claimed" she needed this life surgery? (Holmes is second from right in the photo below, taken with Republican Party brass.)

Holmes was featured on a number of ads suggesting that Obama was looking to replicate the Canadian system, and just how damaging that would be. However, columnist David Lazarus of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "a single-payer Canadian style insurance system is not part of any leading reform proposal as the ad suggests". Media Matters for America called the ad "Strong on emotion and weak on facts.

So who is Shona Holmes and is her story true?

"What many Canadians don’t know is that Ms. Holmes has a lawsuit against the Ontario government, which has not been filed, to recoup 100 thousand dollars for her 2005 trips to the Mayo clinics to remove a Rathke’s Cleft cyst. The suit is also a challenge to single tier care and the Canadian health system. She is one of two plaintiffs, the handlers behind it are The Canadian Constitution Federation. After doing the commercial and a talk show circuit in the US Shona Holmes publicist told CBC News, she was now declining interviews." (4)

According to American journalist Ian Welsh, the entire thing was a hoax:

On the Mayo Clinic's website, Shona Holmes is a success story. But it's somewhat different story than all the headlines might have implied. Holmes' "brain tumour" was actually a Rathke's Cleft Cyst on her pituitary gland. To quote an American source, the John Wayne Cancer Center, "Rathke's Cleft Cysts are not true tumors or neoplasms; instead they are benign cysts."There's no doubt Holmes had a problem that needed treatment, and she was given appointments with the appropriate specialists in Ontario. She chose not to wait the few months to see them. But it's a far cry from the life-or-death picture portrayed by Holmes on the TV ads or by McConnell in his attacks. (5)

The following video represents one of Americans for Prosperity Tea Party chats, where they are trying to use fear mongering, even suggesting that Obama would engage in the genocide of senior citizens. But as one person suggests after the video: "It's really too bad there are so many uneducated people. End of life counseling is done all the time and in fact, check your private insurance policy, cuz it's in there. I worked for an attorney and we wrote living wills all the time - and guess what? We never killed anyone."

What this speaks to more than anything is the enormous ties between the Republican Reconstruction team and Canada's Religious Right. John Weston, the MP who helped to found the Canadian Constitution Foundation, also belongs to the Christian Legal Fellowship, that challenge our Constitution, taking on court cases based on religious freedom.

Sources:

1. New MP profile: West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea-to-Sky's John Weston. Vancouver Sun. October 18, 2008

2. "The knight of the right: Ex-legislator Art Pope has quietly built a political network to advance his conservative vision for North Carolina", By Rob Christensen, Raleigh News and Observer, January 29, 2006.

3. Rachel Maddow: Big Money Pulling the Strings of Protests, Heather/Video Cafe'; Rachel Maddow, August 6, 2009

4. Shona Holmes and The Canadian Constitution Federation, By: Bene Diction, August 2, 2009

5. Americans Lives vs. Insurance Company Profits: The Real Battle in Health Care Reform, By Ian Welsh, Huffington Post, July 21, 2009