About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

6 Replies to “Gates of Vienna will resume posting Monday”

  1. Wishes Gates of Vienna a “nice calm after the storm”. Glühwein comes to mind as here in OZ it’s the deepest winter this equinox night….;)

    • Soeren Kern doesn’t get it. He’s off on just about everything. He’s usually pretty good, but he gets weak when he talks about Spain.

      Portugal’s handled the thing better. Spain’s had problems getting it together, and now they’ve served it half-baked. I was contacted for input a couple of years ago by the committee formulating the act.

      Most commentary about the law is based on other commentary, without reference to primary material or sources. They’re wrong on the purpose of the legislation and they don’t understand the reasons for the specific requirements. Once they get the website up, it may make more sense.

      We’ll see how it goes. I have 3 years from this coming October to decide.

  2. CANADA – A bill to outlaw forced marriage, prevent polygamist immigrations and tackle “honour killings” is set to become law.

    Bill S-7, the Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act, passed its final parliamentary hurdle Tuesday evening, by a vote of 182 to 84. The governing Conservatives and Liberals voted for it, with the New Democrats and Green Party opposed.

    The bill would raise the marriage age to 16 in addition to adding forced marriage to the Criminal Code. It would also toughen the laws around polygamy, with an eye to preventing immigration by those who engage in the practice and making it easier to deport people who do. And, it would toughen the rules around so-called honour killings, so that the defence of provocation can no longer be used in court.

    Just last week, a U.K. man became the first in that country to be convicted of forced marriage, along with several other crimes. Critics of the bill say both its name — the use of the word “barbaric” — and its substance are intended to stir fears of certain groups of immigrants as opposed to keeping women safe. Advocates for victims of forced marriage have also called for the bill’s amendment, if not delay, as they feel criminalizing the act will drive vulnerable women further underground.

    But Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Chris Alexander says the bill is both necessary and prudent as it would make it possible for perpetrators of forced marriage and subsequent sexual assault eligible for life sentences. In an interview with National Post Radio earlier this week, he said the bill “is setting the net wider for those who are involved.” It’s currently not a crime to facilitate a forced marriage, whether as a parent, friend or broker, and this bill would make it one.

    “All of this is urgent and overdue,” Alexander said, adding it’s about “protecting those women and girls who are victims of those crimes.”

    He said it’s also about making POLYGAMY a reason an immigrant would be INADMISSIBLE to Canada.

    He said the U.K. has led on the forced marriages, which “leads to terrible consequences, some of the worst forms of violence, for a lifetime: rape, intimidation, other forms of physical abuse, the mental anguish.”

    All those practices — forced marriage, honour-based violence and polygamy — “have no place in Canada,” Alexander said.

    Unicef has supported the bill for standardizing the age of marriage, which currently varies across the country. But it has also called for the word “barbaric” to be removed from the title and other changes made. The bill, which has been passed by Parliament, has not been substantively amended.

    In 2013, the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario released a report detailing 219 cases of forced marriage between 2010 and its release. Alexander said that’s just a snapshot and there are likely hundreds of more victims in Canada.

    But Deepa Mattoo, a staff lawyer with the clinic, said this week in an email, “the justice system (is already) robust enough to tack the issues.”

    She said the bill would create “more stigma, shame and pushes the issue underground.”

    The bill would also reaffirm “the reality that historically the justice system has been biased against racialized communities,” Mattoo said, pointing to the use of the word “barbaric” as a prime example.

    Bill S-7 is expected to be signed into law by the Governor General on Thursday.

    http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/barbaric-cultural-practices-bill-to-criminalize-forced-marriage-tackle-honour-killings-set-for-final-vote