Monday, January 09, 2012

January 2012 Bites and Bites

First, some kudos are due. Our friend Dr. Dawg managed to scoop up on our own turf.

Neo-nazi to assist at Calgary gun show

According to John Marleau’s Facebook profile: “I am working a gun show the 14th. Lol. Who is heading over?”

That would be this event. Move along. Nothing to see here

Good on ya Dawg! Of course now we're going to have to do something to reclaim our preeminence (tongue firmly planted in cheek) in the field of covering street-level boneheads. 

Stay tuned.

In less happy news:

Anti-Muslim slurs aimed at 2nd Gatineau mosque

A second Gatineau, Que., mosque was the target of anti-Muslim slurs last week just hours after vandalism at another mosque.

Hicham Ouhaid, president of the Mosque of Aylmer, said he received an email early last Monday urging Muslims to get out of Canada.

The message, he said, included a photo of a 2010 Time magazine cover depicting a young Afghan woman whose nose and ears were cut off. 

This is not the first time the Aylmer mosque, located at the corner of Park Street and Chemin Eardley, has been targeted, he added, as a hateful letter was dropped in the mailbox last spring. 

"We felt very concerned. We felt our community is somehow targeted," Ouhaid told the CBC's Alistair Steele. 

"Although we don't really understand why, because we have been there for quite some time and everything was fine." 

Ouhaid said he has yet to forward the email to police. 

Anti-Muslim incidents may be linked

Ouhaid believes the email is connected to vandalism where cars were smashed outside the Outaouais Islamic Centre in Gatineau early last Monday.

Then in the early morning of Jan. 5, a lone man in his 20s was caught on camera painting racist messages on the centre's front doors, across the building's side and on two other entrances to the building. 

The same man is suspected of both cases of vandalism at the Gatineau mosque. 

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney have spoken out against the Gatineau mosque attacks, and Marc Bureau, the city's mayor, visited Friday prayer. 

Gatineau police are investigating the Monday vandalism at the Outaouais Islamic Centre as a hate crime.

And finally, the banana tossing jackass was dealt with today as well:

Tossing banana at NHL's Wayne Simmonds nets man $200 fine

LONDON, Ont.— The Canadian Press    Published Monday, Jan. 09, 2012 11:05AM EST

The man who touched off a national furor when he threw a banana at a black NHL player during an exhibition game has been fined $200. 

Christopher Moorhouse, 26, was not on hand in the London, Ont. courtroom where his lawyer entered a guilty plea on his behalf on Monday. 

Moorhouse was charged with engaging in a prohibited activity, an offence under the provincial Trespass to Property Act rather than the Criminal Code.

Under the terms of the sentence, Moorhouse has 90 days to pay the fine. 

Defence lawyer Faisal Joseph could not immediately be reached for comment, but had previously called for leniency in a case he contended had been blown far out of proportion. 

Joseph said Moorhouse was oblivious to the racial connotations of throwing a banana when he lobbed the fruit at Philadelphia Flyers' forward Wayne Simmonds on Sept. 22. 

Moorhouse was caught up in the drama of a tense overtime shootout between the Flyers and his favourite team, the Detroit Red Wings, he said. Simmonds had just forced the game into overtime with a third-period goal and was approaching Detroit goalie Jordan Pearce to try and clinch the match at London's John Labatt Centre. Detroit went on to win the pre-season game 4-3. 

Moorhouse's sole intention was to prevent Simmonds from scoring against his favourite hockey team, Joseph said. 

“He was horrified when he saw the implications a day later as to how it had come out, and he said to me, ‘if I had an apple or an orange, I would have thrown that out onto the ice,“’ Joseph previously told the Canadian Press. “I did not realize the significance.“’ 

The incident touched off widespread controversy, drawing a sharp condemnation from the National Hockey League and prompting the city of London to issue an apology on behalf of its citizens. 

While Simmonds himself shrugged off the affair, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman roundly criticized the move the morning after the game. 

“The obviously stupid and ignorant action by one individual is in no way representative of our fans or the people of London, Ontario,” he said. 

Despite the high profile of the incident, London police chief Brad Duncan said the offence was not serious enough to be considered a hate crime or even merit a charge of mischief. 

“You have to demonstrate and be motivated by hatred,” he told a news conference shortly after the game.

“Although the banana did hit the ice, it did not interfere with the play so it didn't meet the mischief threshold.” 

Moorhouse's sentence falls well short of the maximum $2,000 fine he could have faced if he had been convicted of the charge.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

At least John has found work and can finally call himself a taxpayer. Even if it is only for a few hours. Way to go lil buddy!

Anonymous said...

He really means that "working" is Dancing topless for hamburgers.