Canadian judge goes bonkers on a thought crime: Case of Mohamed Hersi defended by lawyer Paul Slansky

... Or the link between domestic Islamophobia in the courts and Israel


You could not make this stuff up.

Government passes a law (link) that makes it a criminal offense for a Canadian citizen to even attempt to help any group that is labelled by the Government (in its objective and infinite wisdom) as a terrorist group.

Thus the Government makes it a criminal offense for a Canadian citizen to choose to side (in thought, intention, or action) with an organization of which the government does not approve, in some conflict that has no demonstrated relevance to the safety of Canadians.

Why should the Government be allowed to limit the personal "foreign-politics" of its citizens who wish to use their personal resources and their personal selves in any way they choose in the world? 

How can such a criminal charge be laid without the real possibility of challenging the Government's certification or opinion of terrorism, as a defence against the charge? Or without the Government having an onus to show that the charged person has actually put a single Canadian in danger, or has actually caused harm to a single person?

How can a Canadian citizen be put away for 10 years on the basis of a Government's political attribution (as advanced by the Crown) that some group is a terrorist group?

I don't care which group. That domestic criminal charges could be based on such tenets is completely absurd. This is state Fascism.

If terrorism is performing or enabling violence against civilians to produce political change then Canada is a terrorist state. This is a fact, not some theoretical argument. What then is the Government's (Crown's) "terrorism"?

Why not also finish exterminating the First Peoples, re-intern Japanese-Canadians, round-up self-hating Jews, fire all the journalists...?

Just think. Canada has only very recently (2013) lifted its ban on the "terrorist" Nelson Mandela and the ANC (link). You worked from Canada to end South African apartheid by recruiting volunteers to help the ANC, you go to jail in Canada. It's that simple under this anti-democratic law.

Oh, now, look Hamas is a terrorist organization (democratically elected in 2006) but Israel is not a terrorist state, does not bomb civilian areas, does not annex land contrary to UN resolutions, does not kill women and children by the hundreds whenever it decides that there is a sufficient pretext. And all the lobbyists who recruit Canadian mercenaries and visitors to Israel cannot be charged under this law? No, your Government -- and its obedient judges -- decides who the terrorists are, irrespective of facts on the ground. (See article about Hamas rockets here.)

And if you don't agree, if your words or plane tickets suggest support then you are going away for a long time.

Did anyone notice how we got here? Well, now we are here.

And bravo to the crazed judge that decided to make an example of this case! (link) (link)

"Anything less trivializes the nature of his actions," said the judge about the sentence from the Peel Region court in Brampton, Ont.

Hersi was convicted of attempting to participate in terrorist activity abroad and trying to enlist an undercover officer. The Crown argued he was trying to join the Somali militant group al-Shabaab, which Canada deems a terrorist entity.

The 28-year-old, who was working as a security guard, intended to travel onward to Somalia to join al-Shabaab, the Crown said.

The judges are tripping over themselves trying to apply the new state zealotry, or else suffering the consequences.

Not to mention that the defence lawyer in the case is no judge's darling (link). But judges are not a partial club and do not punish on the basis of establishment sentiment. Right?

There is a slight and emerging stench to the Canadian judiciary in these special days of ideological warfare.

And now the party begins. It will go to appeal. Millions will be spent so that, eventually, the Supreme Court can not-decide-anything, as usual, so that we we can start again, and continue. The highest Court's main job will be to hide the obvious -- that this is crazy and wrong, the whole show.

If the appeals fail, then Mohamed Hersi will be Canada's first Section-83.18 political prisoner.

(relax. it's just a blog. nobody reads this.)