Family Values: Ex-teacher Mary Kay Letourneau separates from former student years after sex scandal

Back in 1996, Mary Kay Letourneau, 34, was a married mother of four who taught at a Seattle elementary school. Vili Fualaau was a 12-year-old sixth grade student in her class. They began a sexual and romantic relationship that would lead to nationwide television coverage, multiple jail stints, books about forbidden love, two children and in 2005, a marriage.

Now, Letourneau and her husband Fualaau are making yet another tabloid headline – they are legally separating, according to TMZ.

People magazine, which confirmed the story, quoted an unnamed source close to the couple saying “they’ve been having issues for awhile now. They tried to work through them, but it didn’t work. They’re still committed to being good parents to their children.”

Letourneau’s lawyer, David Gehrke, told People that Fualaau filed for separation.

Letourneau’s relationship with the boy was first exposed after a relative of her husband found out about it and told police. After Letourneau’s first arrest in March 1997, she gave birth to her first child with Fualaau, a daughter named Audrey, while she was out on bail.

She pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree child rape and was sentenced to six months in jail. She was required to undergo sex offender treatment.

She was released from jail after serving three months. Two weeks later, she was caught having sex with Fualaau in a car. She was arrested again and sentenced to seven years for violating the terms of her parole. While in prison she gave birth to Georgia, her second child with Fualaau.  (more...)

Ex-teacher Mary Kay Letourneau separates from former student years after sex scandal

What, you ask, could this possibly have to do with "family values"? Explore this rabbit hole. It's far weirder than you can imagine:

The Schmitzes: Republican Family Values

Conservatives really need to watch out for right-wingers who want to appropriate and exploit their movement. You're being had.

CRA pursuing criminal charges against Panama Papers tax cheats

The Canada Revenue Agency’s probe into tax cheats named in the Panama Papers has taken a criminal turn.

More than a year after the historic leak of tax haven documents, the federal agency is now auditing 122 Canadians who appear in the database and has launched dozens of criminal investigations, details of which will be made available in a status report to be tabled in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

“When the severity of the crime permits fraud charges under the Criminal Code — which allow for longer sentences — we go there,” said the CRA’s assistant commissioner Ted Gallivan, who described the official update on the CRA’s Panama Papers investigation to the Star.

It’s the strongest signal yet that Canadians named in the Panama Papers could end up behind bars.

The database, which was leaked to the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, led to hundreds of investigative reports by media partners around the world, including the Star and CBC/Radio-Canada. After the initial flurry of news led to the resignation of Iceland’s prime minister, criminal probes have been brewing in dozens of countries.

In Canada, the revelations were greeted with a nearly half-billion-dollar investment in the CRA and a mandate to expand offshore investigations.

But what’s pushed the CRA to go beyond attempting to recoup unpaid tax and pursue jail time is a new-found focus on the enablers: the accountants and lawyers who set up offshore tax evasion schemes and sell them to clients.

“The agency has been directed by the minister to up our game,” Gallivan said.  (more...)

CRA pursuing criminal charges against Panama Papers tax cheats

Background:

Finance Minister Bill Morneau vows to close ‘unfair’ tax loopholes

Canadian banks dominate Caribbean's unsavoury financial sector

An eleven-year-old Florida girl forced to marry her rapist, an all too common story

When she was a scrawny 11-year-old, Sherry Johnson found out one day that she was about to be married to a 20-year-old member of her church who had raped her.

“It was forced on me,” she recalls. She had become pregnant, she says, and child welfare authorities were investigating — so her family and church officials decided the simplest way to avoid a messy criminal case was to organize a wedding.

“My mom asked me if I wanted to get married, and I said, ‘I don’t know, what is marriage, how do I act like a wife?'” Johnson remembers today, many years later. “She said, ‘Well, I guess you’re just going to get married.'”

So she was. A government clerk in Tampa, Florida, refused to marry an 11-year-old, even though this was legal in the state, so the wedding party went to nearby Pinellas County, where the clerk issued a marriage license. The license (which I’ve examined) lists her birth date, so officials were aware of her age.

Not surprisingly, the marriage didn’t work out — two-thirds of marriages of underage girls don’t last, one study found — but it did interrupt Johnson’s attendance at elementary school. Today she is campaigning for a state law to curb underage marriages, part of a nationwide movement to end child marriage in America. Meanwhile, children 16 and under are still being married in Florida at a rate of one every few days.  (more...)

An eleven-year-old Florida girl forced to marry her rapist, an all too common story

You’re thinking: “Child marriage? That’s what happens in Bangladesh or Tanzania, not America!”

Trump-Russia Inquiry Looks at Potential for Wall Street Bank Money Laundering

Senator Sherrod Brown Demands Answers from Treasury
Secretary Steven Mnuchin at Senate Hearing, May 18, 2017

The majority of American citizens have never heard of the U.S. Treasury agency known as FinCEN – short for Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. But for those who work for Wall Street brokerage firms or the mega Wall Street banks like JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup or German banking giant Deutsche Bank, just the mere mention of FinCEN can quickly produce beads of sweat dripping onto those expensive Canali suits. That’s because FinCEN is the Federal agency where suspicious financial activity that might turn out to be money laundering gets reported. All three banks, and numerous others, have had their share of scandalous run ins with money laundering.

In recent weeks, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, Senate Intelligence Committee and the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee have all shown an interest in what FinCEN might have in its database that would shed sunshine on involvement of the Trump business empire or Trump campaign and Russian money inflows.  (more...)

Trump-Russia Inquiry Looks at Potential for Wall Street Bank Money Laundering

In other news:

Trump’s Justice Department Goes Easy on Citigroup Unit for Criminal Money Laundering

Shhhh... These 100 Secret Societies Prove Who Really Rules America

... and Canada

Do armed, uniformed cops belong in Toronto high schools?

When the Toronto police board met this week, a lesser-known police initiative called the School Resource Officer program was a minor item buried deep on a packed agenda — and nowhere near the chopping block.

But by the end of the monthly board meeting, the 36 uniform cops assigned to work in 75 schools across the city had nearly been pulled out of class, the program suddenly on the brink of suspension pending consultation with school leaders and community members.

The abrupt turn of events was prompted by impassioned presentations by a group of educators and researchers, who detailed what they said was the detrimental — and in some cases dangerous — impact of cops walking the halls alongside students.

Racialized students felt harassed and surveilled, the board heard. Undocumented students were threatened by officers inquiring about their citizenship status. The presence of an officer criminalizes situations once handled by teachers or administrators, creating a “school to prison pipeline.”

The accounts of the nearly decade-old program directly contradicted the glowing letter that prompted the discussion in the first place — a letter from Toronto Catholic District School Board chair Angela Kennedy calling the program “a cornerstone of our commitment to safe school communities.”  (more...)

Do armed, uniformed cops belong in Toronto high schools?

Related:

Canada needs education, not incarceration

‘They’re not safe’: Durham teacher speaks out about classroom violence

School violence is a crisis, and parents need to speak up

Toronto's smiling fascism in action?

Knights of Columbus Funding at Work at Crux

Yes, but is it art?

Tracking Nazi Gold - Dead Men's Secrets

Story of how Hitler used Jewish valuables to finance his global conquest and how it was covered up by the Swiss Banks that financed Hitlers war on Jews.

What is bitter and dark and wrapped in cheerful colors?

Related:

Darkness in the Vaults

Finance Minister Bill Morneau vows to close ‘unfair’ tax loopholes

Canada’s finance minister denounced “unfair” tax loopholes on Thursday and put Bay Street on notice that the Liberal government is committed to addressing “blind spots” and exposing shadowy corporate finances to public scrutiny.

“We don’t want to wait for the next Panama Papers to tell us whether or not someone may be trying to hide their income from taxation,” said Bill Morneau, referring to the massive leak of offshore tax haven documents the Toronto Star and the CBC/Radio-Canada revealed last year.

“We’re laying down the gauntlet.”

The federal government will release a discussion paper laying out policy positions in the coming weeks and invited Canada’s business elite to weigh in on how to crack down on tax evasion.

The goal, he said, is not new revenue — it is fairness.

“People have to have confidence in our system. They have confidence that it’s fair for them and their family . . . because at the end of the day, we know that’s a foundation for a healthy and growing economy, and that’s really what we’re after.”  (more...)

Finance Minister Bill Morneau vows to close ‘unfair’ tax loopholes

Background:

Canadian banks dominate Caribbean's unsavoury financial sector

Libertarianism and Genocide: Nothing Personal -- Just Business

John Loftus, is the author of the book "The Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed The Jewish People"

Give me Liberty, or give me you death.

Anyone else feeling besieged and betrayed?

Britain's Second Empire, and More

“This is a story that really needs to be told and that needs to enter the public consciousness. The main danger in an overly dominant finance sector as it is in the UK, if we give it too much power what you end up with is a kind of dictatorship of finance.”

Michael Oswald, director of The Spider’ Web: Britain’s Second Empire

‘To all intents and purposes trusts are invisible arrangements. We’re not talking about a few million. We’re talking about trillions of capital which apparently belongs to nobody, for tax purposes and for any other purposes.”

John Christensen, Tax Justice Network

Related:

The Spider's Web: Britain's Second Empire

Ukrainian general calls for destruction of Jews

In the latest of a series of highly public antisemitic statements by prominent figures in Ukraine, a retired Ukrainian general affiliated with the country’s intelligence services this week called for the destruction of his country’s Jewish community.

In a post since deleted from Facebook, Vasily Vovk - a general who holds a senior reserve rank with the Security Service of Ukraine, the local successor to the KGB - wrote that Jews “aren't Ukrainians and I will destroy you along with [Ukrainian oligarch and Jewish lawmaker Vadim] Rabinovych. I'm telling you one more time - go to hell, zhidi [kikes], the Ukrainian people have had it to here with you.”

"Ukraine must be governed by Ukrainians,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian war hero-turned-lawmaker Nadiya Savchenko came under fire in March after saying during a television interview that Jews held disproportionate control over the levers of power in Ukraine.

More recently, opposition politician Yulia Tymoshenko was forced to apologise after being filmed laughing at an antisemitic comedy act at a gathering of her Fatherland party, and Volodymyr Viatrovych, director of the state-run Institution for National Memory accused Jewish activist Eduard Dolinsky of fabricating antisemitic incidents for money.

Viatrovych is also running a public awareness campaign whitewashing the participation of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a Ukrainian nationalist militia, in the Holocaust.  (more...)

Ukrainian general calls for destruction of Jews

H/T to Spitfire List

Related:

British columnist under fire for echoing Nazis in calling for a ‘final solution’ after Manchester attack

New-look Nazi

The Guns of Constantinople

Take down this wall

Early in 1452, a Hungarian cannon founder by the name of Orban arrived in Constantinople, seeking his fortune at the imperial court. One of a growing band of technical mercenaries who plied their trade across the Balkans, he offered Emperor Constantine XI one of the most highly prized skills of the age: the ability to cast large bronze guns.

For Constantine and the Christian empire of Byzantium that he ruled, these were dark days. For 150 years the Byzantine frontier had been crumbling before the advance of the Ottoman Turks. By the time Constantine assumed the throne in 1449, his impoverished kingdom had shrunk to little more than the footprint of the city, surrounded on all sides by Ottoman land. The new sultan, Mehmed II—young, ambitious and hungry for conquest—was making ominous military preparations in his European capital, Edirne, 140 miles to the west. It was clear he was intent on capturing the prize that had eluded previous Ottoman rulers: Constantinople.

Constantine was extremely interested in Orban’s offer and authorized a small stipend to detain him in the city. But Constantine had few funds available for the construction of new weapons. Bronze cannons were ruinously expensive, well beyond the means of the cash-strapped emperor. Orban’s tiny allowance was not even paid regularly, and as the year wore on, the master craftsman became destitute. So later that same year he decided to try his luck elsewhere. He made his way to Edirne to seek an audience with the young sultan.

At the time, Mehmed was racked by indecision over Constantinople. The city was the ultimate prize; it would provide a fitting capital for the Ottoman Empire, and its capture was the subject of ancient Muslim prophecies, attributed to Muhammad himself, that predicted great honor for its eventual conqueror. However, Constantinople had repulsed repeated Muslim assaults from the 7th century onward. Its triangular site made it all but impregnable: Two sides were surrounded by sea, and the third landward side was commanded by the great Walls of Theodosius, a defensive line four miles long, the greatest bastion in the medieval world. In a thousand years the city had been besieged some 23 times, but no army had found a way to crack open those land walls.

Accordingly, Orban’s arrival at Edirne must have seemed providential. The sultan welcomed the master founder and questioned him closely. Mehmed asked if he could cast a cannon to project a stone ball large enough to smash the walls at Constantinople. Orban’s reply was emphatic: “I can cast a cannon of bronze with the capacity of the stone you want. I have examined the walls of the city in great detail. I can shatter to dust not only these walls with the stones from my gun, but the very walls of Babylon itself.” Mehmed ordered him to make the gun.  (more...)

 The Guns of Constantinople

Like Hollywood but with dirty money, welcome to London's richest suburbs

Roman Borisovich conducts a bus tour.

London: Roll up, roll up for the Kleptocracy Tour.

As media stunts go, this has to rank at the weird end of the scale.

For three hours, through heavy London traffic, a coach-load of journalists is taken past absurdly expensive mansions and flash apartments in the city's ritziest neighbourhoods: Chelsea, Kensington, Knightsbridge, Hyde Park.

It's like one of those Hollywood tours where you trundle past the homes of celebs, pausing to snap photos of featureless gates. Except this is rainy London, and they're famous for all the wrong reasons.

Here is the elegant terrace of a Russian oil industry middleman who scraped a multibillion-dollar fortune from mysteriously inflated contracts, we're told, and used it to pick up £250 million ($431 million) worth of properties in central London.

There's a grade-1 heritage-listed Regency building belonging to a chap with mafia connections, who fought his way to a virtual monopoly of a country's ore refining industry and bought political protection by bankrolling​ civic projects – with the favours returned in the form of cheap state loans and expensive state contracts.

Down this lane lives the son of one of Vladimir Putin's best and oldest pals from St Petersburg, wildly enriched through state contracts and commissions.

And up in this apartment building near Sloane Square lives the daughter of the Duma's poorest MP – if you believe his official declarations, though the Panama Papers revealed a substantial central Paris and London property portfolio.  (more...)

Like Hollywood but with dirty money, welcome to London's richest suburbs

Greedy Sharks: The new rule for banking in Eastern Europe that makes fraudulent oligarchs billions

Years ago, people in America talked about the “3-6-3 Rule” in banking. Bankers paid out 3% interest on deposits, collected 6% interest on loans, and were on the golf course at 3 o'clock.

But now in Eastern Europe, bankers have a new rule. They collect deposits, book “loans” that are actually uncollateralized transfers to mysterious shell companies, then they ask taxpayers to pay back the deposits. These bankers don't waste time playing golf and instead buy giant palaces, airplanes, or superyachts.

The champion of this concept of banking is oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. Based in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, but with his family kept safe in Switzerland, Kolomoisky is best known as the billionaire former owner of Ukraine's largest bank PrivatBank.

Kolomoisky is extreme and eccentric even by the standard of his peers, the other Soviet oligarchs who continue to control the supposedly-democratic governments of Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Latvia.

Perhaps because of watching too many James Bond movies, Kolomoisky installed a gigantic shark aquarium in his office, with a remote control on his desk that drops meat into the tank. Imagine sitting on the other side of that desk and trying to negotiate a business deal!

He also maintains a private army. The Wall Street Journal published an estimate that he provides $10 million per month to maintain militias in Dnipropetrovsk. Supposedly the purpose of these militias is to defend Ukraine, however this mission isn't always clear. His soldiers have been known to show up at board meetings of major Ukrainian corporations, armed, giving the directors advice they can't refuse.  (more...)

Greedy Sharks: The new rule for banking in Eastern Europe that makes fraudulent oligarchs billions

Strange people, these:

It's the Wascaly Wushans: Freeland knew her grandfather was editor of Nazi newspaper

Really strange:

The Best Conspiracy Theories Are Crazy Ones

Stalk'n da troof

Nazi Occultism, Deep State Magic, & The Nine

Source:

Recluse on The Higherside Chats

Canadian banks dominate Caribbean's unsavoury financial sector

A recent photo in French daily Liberation hints at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce's role in facilitating tax avoidance, which is partly an outgrowth of Canadian banking prowess in the Caribbean and Ottawa's role in shaping the region's unsavoury financial sector.

Just before the second round of the French presidential election documents were leaked purporting to show that Emmanuel Macron set up a company in a Caribbean tax haven. The president-elect's firm is alleged to have had dealings with CIBC FirstCaribbean, a subsidiary of Canada's fifth biggest bank.

While Macron denies setting up an offshore firm and contests the veracity of the documents, this is immaterial to the broader point. If the documents are a fraudulent political attack, those responsible chose CIBC First Caribbean because it is a major player in the region and has been linked to various tax avoidance schemes.

CIBC registered 632 companies and private foundations in the tax haven of the Bahamas between 1990 and May 2016, according to documents released in the Panama Papers.

CIBC was named 1,347 times in a cache of leaked files concerning secret tax havens released by the Consortium of Investigative Journalists in 2013.

FirstCaribbean was implicated in the 2015 FIFA corruption scandal. To avoid an electronic trail of a $250,000 payment to former FIFA official Chuck Blazer, a representative of FirstCaribbean allegedly flew to New York to collect a cheque and deposit it in a Bahamas account.  (more...)

Canadian banks dominate Caribbean's unsavoury financial sector

Background:

Is Canada a Tax Haven and is Halifax Part of its Offshore System?

Canada: A New Tax Haven: How the Country That Shaped Caribbean Tax Havens Is Becoming One Itself

Huge scale of FA inquiry into historical sex abuse revealed

The FA has released details of its investigation of child sexual abuse in football, showing that it has grown significantly in scale:

• Five million FA documents to be reviewed
• 65,000 football clubs have been contacted
• Clubs and officials could be sanctioned
• Investigation is looking into whether clubs covered up allegations of abuse
• Claims a paedophile ring operated within football are also being investigated

Lying in a giant warehouse, untouched for decades and hidden somewhere inside one of five thousand boxes, there may well be documents revealing exactly how the Football Association responded to allegations of the sexual abuse of young boys.

These records are just the starting point for the FA's appointed inquiry team, tasked with finding out whether the scandal we are now finally addressing could have been curtailed at the time.

Inevitably it will address how many aspiring footballers should and could have been protected from events that have shaped their lives ever since.

The answer to that question might make for uncomfortable reading.  (more...)

Huge scale of FA inquiry into historical sex abuse revealed

Related:

Football abuse scandal: eight clubs could face sanctions after missing deadlines

FA investigators seek evidence of paedophile ring

Untold: The Daniel Morgan Murder Exposed

ONE OF the reasons why the 1987 murder of Daniel Morgan has not been properly covered by Britain’s national media is the fact he was part-Welsh.

After nearly two decades involved in this story, I’m convinced Daniel’s Welsh background is a significant factor.

His father John — a native Welsh-speaker from Pontardawe — was wounded and captured at Arnhem in World War 2.

After the war he was commissioned a captain and posted to Singapore.

There he met Isobel and their two sons, Alastair and Daniel, were born in the British colony.

Daniel was premature and there were problems with one of his legs.

John Morgan resigned his commission to bring him back for treatment in the newly-created NHS.

The family lived for many years in Llanfrechfa near Cwmbran.

John, who had worked as a coalminer on his return from Singapore, died of emphysema at 41.

Daniel didn’t reach that age.

He was just 37 when he was axed to death in the car park of a south London pub.

The private investigator was married with two small children.

The prime suspect has always been Daniel’s business partner, Jonathan Rees.

One of the Scotland Yard detectives who investigated the murder, sergeant Sid Fillery, was kicked off the inquiry when it emerged he was a close friend of Rees.

Within a year Fillery retired — and stepped into the dead man’s shoes as Rees’ new partner.

Both were finally charged in 2008 — Rees with the murder, Fillery with attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The case collapsed.  (more...)

Untold: The Daniel Morgan Murder Exposed

Please listen to Ep 1. 2nd Series of @UntoldMurder This true story has major new revelations of serious concern. https://t.co/Y9eEEZFybm

— Frank Matthews (@lamplightercop) May 18, 2017

Teacher McLaren gets two years for sex offences with students

BELLEVILLE - The mother of one of the eight boys preyed on by a disgraced former Tweed Elementary teacher, Jaclyn McLaren, told a Belleville court she’s sickened by the predatory acts of the 36-year-old, who, a sexual offenders report indicates, has yet to grasp the impact of her relations with vulnerable students.

“Not once did it cross my mind that I would be delivering my son to a predator,” the mother, who can’t be named in order to protect the identity of her now 17-year-old son, told a filled court gallery, including McLaren’s parents and several relatives of the other victims during Friday’s sentencing. “I’m completely disgusted. It sickens me.”

Upon hearing her sentence of two years, McLaren, donning black pants and jacket, took a final sip from a water bottle, before passing it to her family in the gallery. She removed a zip lock bag carrying an assortment of medication and other items from her bag, then her bracelets and earrings, before being handcuffed.

“Love you Jaclyn,” a relative uttered.

“Bye,” McLaren replied. “Love you too.”

The mother seemed to grapple with the two-year penitentiary term meted out to McLaren, which she deemed somewhat a double standard, as in her eyes a male teacher would likely be dealt with more severely. McLaren will be on probation for two years upon release.

“If this was a male teacher, what would the outcome have been?” she asked.  (more...)

Teacher McLaren gets two years for sex offences with students

More coverage:

Local teacher gets two years in prison for sexual contact with minors

Eastern Ontario teacher gets 2 years in prison for sex offences involving students

Teacher given 2 years for sex crimes against students

Ont. teacher gets 2 years in prison for sex-related offences with students

Nazis in the Attic? Germany rejects beneficial ownership transparency

Can you keep a secret?

On 17 May 2017, the members of the Finance Committee of the Bundestag cast their votes for ultimate amendments to Germany’s anti-money laundering law. The governing conservatives CDU/CSU and Social Democrats SPD rejected amendments supported by the left and Green party that would have remedied three fundamental flaws in the law which prevent the public from accessing beneficial ownership information on German legal entities. These flaws consist of

• the failure to make the registry of beneficial owners public
• the registry’s restricted scope which is likely in breach of the 4th EU Anti-money laundering directive
• a watered down the definition of beneficial ownership.

The law will be voted on in its current form by the Plenary of the Bundestag in the evening of the 18th May, with no opportunity to change the text further. The only way to stop and/or amend the law would be through the Bundesrat, Germany’s upper chamber. However, after recent elections, this outcome appears to be less likely.

Despite severe critiques presented at the law’s public hearing in the finance committee on 24 April, none of the fundamental weaknesses identified by TJN, German Netzwerk Steuergerechtigkeit and Transparency International have been addressed by the amendments voted for by the governing coalition  (more...)

Germany rejects beneficial ownership transparency

Background:

Tax Haven Germany

Tax Havens and Human Rights

Mom of disabled student left stranded on school bus in Toronto files $700K lawsuit

The mother of a disabled teen forgotten on a school bus and left alone for hours has launched a lawsuit against those she’s holding responsible, claiming her daughter has sustained ongoing trauma as a result of the incident.

Laura Mastache claims her daughter Wendy has become noticeably more fearful and withdrawn in the months since a driver forgot to drop her off at her Toronto-area high school, drove the vehicle to a funeral and abandoned the 19-year-old on the bus on a chilly winter’s day.

Both mother and daughter are named as plaintiffs in the suit, which accuses the driver, bus company Stock Transportation and the Toronto District School Board of negligence.

The suit is seeking total damages of $700,000 and alleges injury to dignity and loss of companionship as a result of the incident that took place on Jan. 23. None of the allegations in the suit have been proven in court.

Laura Mastache said her daughter did not sustain physical injuries in the incident, but said the alleged psychological changes she’s observed, which include reluctance to go to class and sleep alone, should be acknowledged.

“We have some regressions in some areas,” Mastache said in an interview. “It took us years for her to overcome some fears, now it’s going back to square one.”  (more...)

Mom of disabled student left stranded on school bus in Toronto files $700K lawsuit

More coverage:

Toronto mother launches lawsuit after daughter with special needs left on bus for hours in the cold

In wake of racism scandal, York school board says 'sorry'

The York Region District School Board (YRDSB) is apologizing to Charline Grant as part of a settlement of the human rights complaint she launched after being called the "N-word" by a former board trustee.

Prior to the racial slur, Grant had come forward with allegations that her son was discriminated against because of his race at his Woodbridge-area school.

Other allegations from other parents surfaced over the past year, leading to a review by the Ministry of Education that in April described a "culture of fear" and found "systemic discrimination" at the school board.

The mediated settlement between Grant and the YRDSB outlines several steps the board is promising to take in order to address issues of racism and discrimination.

While much of it reinforces the 22 directives issued to the board in the ministerial review, the settlement includes an apology to Grant, her family and the black community for the board's "failure to respond appropriately to the use of a racial slur towards a parent by a former trustee."

The apology from the board describes its response to complaints about racism as "hostile, dismissive, arrogant, and inappropriate."  (more...)

In wake of racism scandal, York school board says 'sorry'

More coverage;

YRDSB to apologize to mother who filed human rights complaints against board

York school board to apologize to parent after human rights complaints

At one of Toronto's most diverse schools, parents find common ground in fight against racism

Will the social Darwinian premises of our education establishment come into question? Don't count on it.

Louie Has the Number of the Neo-Khans; It Is the Number of the Beast

In a recent article for First Things, George Weigel provided excellent insights into the neo-conservative Catholic mind as he bemoaned the allegedly soon-to-occur regularization of the Society of St. Pius X; claiming that doing so “would immeasurably damage the New Evangelization.”

From his lips to God’s ears!

At this, let’s review some of the highlights of Professor Weigel’s masterclass on neo-conservatism.

Lesson #1: Neo-conservatism leads to a darkened intellect

George Weigel looks at the half-a-century old “New Evangelization” – with its empty seminaries, bankrupt dioceses, and pastorless parishes – and insists that the good times must be allowed to roll on!

How is it that an otherwise intelligent man cannot see that this little experiment known as the “New Evangelization” has been a massive failure on every conceivable front?

The answer is simple; his view is informed almost exclusively, not by a sensus Catholicus, but rather by a sensus concilius, and make no mistake, they are as different as night and day – the former being founded in truth; the latter on a series of cleverly disguised lies published on official Vatican II letterhead.

The result of having accepted the conciliar deception is a darkened intellect that is no longer capable of recognizing things as they are; to the point where that which is poisonous appears good for food. (Sound familiar?)  (more...)

Neo-Conservatism: Valuable lessons from Professor Weigel

Further exposure:

Another valuable lesson in neo-conservatism

The simulacra are the deadliest manifestations of the Antichrist. To these, many will fall.

Former high school staffer denies she had sex with student

A former high school education assistant accused of having sex with a student denied the allegations and proclaimed her innocence in court Wednesday.

Sheryl Ann Dyck, 44, took the stand in her own defence, testifying she never had sex, did drugs or drank with a 16-year-old student at Elmwood High School who she was responsible for supervising.

"I’ve never touched him in any way," she said.

Dyck is accused of one count of sexual exploitation for alleged abuse that happened when the teen was 16 and 17 years old, while Dyck was working as a teacher's aide at the school in 2014.

She is accused of buying the teen alcohol and doing drugs with him outside of school hours between March and October 2014, which was Dyck's sixth year as an educational assistant at the high school. In a statement to police, the teen said Dyck had sexual intercourse with him on his 17th birthday.

During her testimony Wednesday, the married mother of three said that never happened, contrary to previous testimony from the complainant, as well as his mother and his sister, who told court they were aware of a sexual relationship between Dyck and the teen.

"Why would these people say these things about you?" defence lawyer Gisele Champagne asked her client.

"I think that they’re ruthless people. They’re gang-affiliated," Dyck replied. "I… had authority, and I had to tell him what to do. He got angry. He didn’t like that."  (more...)

Former high school staffer denies she had sex with student

Background:

Former Winnipeg Teacher’s Aide on Trial Accused of Sex with Student

Aga Khan island that hosted Trudeau owned by company with offshore ties, records show

The Bahamas island where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took a vacation that is now the subject of an ethics investigation is owned by a company connected to a secretive web of corporations located in countries known to be offshore tax havens.

Bell Island, a private property nestled in the turquoise waters of the Exumas, has been widely known as the tropical retreat of the Aga Khan, a longtime Trudeau family friend.

Pictures and video of Bell Island obtained by CBC News show an idyllic location. An elegant, modern cream-coloured main house. A landscaped terrace surrounded by tropical flowers overlooking the water. Waterfront gazebos with thatched roofs and wooden pathways leading to ocean lookouts.

However, a CBC News investigation into Bell Island and the helicopter that carried Trudeau to the tropical retreat over the Christmas holidays has found a trail that includes several different companies and four countries known for their favourable tax rules and their ability to keep secrets.

The legal ownership of Bell Island involves several shell companies and nominee directors with links to Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse. The reasons for the complex corporate structure are unclear, and officials connected to the Aga Khan have refused to comment.

"Our policy is not to comment on any matters pertaining to His Highness's private affairs," said Semin Abdulla, communications manager for the Aga Khan Development Network.

Setting up offshore companies is legal and there can be legitimate reasons for using networks of offshore companies with nominee directors.

However, experts say it is also the kind of structure often used by those who are trying to hide assets or avoid or evade taxes. While tax avoidance can be legal, evading taxes is not.  (more...)

Aga Khan island that hosted Trudeau owned by company with offshore ties, records show

More coverage:

Trudeau under renewed attack for Bahamas vacation

Related:

Canada must not become a tax haven

Lax Canadian regulations sheltering corporate shell games

Police, TDSB investigating whether an educational assistant choked a 6-year-old

Deon Providence alleges her six-year-old son was choked by an educational
assistant at St. Margaret's Public School

The Toronto District School Board has ordered an educational assistant to stay home pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations that he choked the six-year-old boy he was meant to be supervising.

The Grade 1 student's mother contacted Toronto police and they have also launched a criminal probe into what happened at St. Margaret's Public School on Thursday afternoon.

"We have a report on file for an assault [and] we are interviewing people," Const. Caroline de Kloet said Monday when asked about the allegations.

No charges have been laid so far. Although board spokesperson Ryan Bird confirmed that a staff member at the Scarborough school had been "placed on home assignment," he would not comment about the situation.  (more...)

Police, TDSB investigating whether an educational assistant choked a 6-year-old

Related:

‘They’re not safe’: Durham teacher speaks out about classroom violence

The Secret Life of Timothy McVeigh

Timothy McVeigh. We've been told so much about him, the Oklahoma City bombing, and what it meant for America. But what if it's all a lie? Join us today for this special Corbett Report podcastumentary as we examine the multiple trucks, multiple bombs, government informants, faked executions and other pieces of information suggesting that McVeigh was not a "lone wolf bomber" at all but a sheepdipped special forces operative working for the government, exactly as he claimed.

Related:

The Road to Elohim

Charlottesville, Va. Protesters Wield Torches, Chant Nazi Slogans

Dozens of torch-wielding protesters shouted white supremacist chants in Charlottesville, Va. on Saturday in objection to the city's decision to sell a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

AOL reported attendees chanted "Russia is our friend," as well as "blood and soil," a Nazi-era ideology espoused by white nationalists that refers to the idea that ethnicity is determined by both blood and territory.

Charlottesville City Council voted to sell Lee's statue last month, but a judge issued an injunction that forces the city to wait six months. The city also plans to rename Lee Park, and build a new memorial in Jackson Park to those who were enslaved, according to the Charlottesville Daily Progress.

In attendance at the rally was self-proclaimed white nationalist Richard Spencer. Spencer is known for coining the term "alt-right," a U.S.-based white nationalist movement that includes racists, neo-Nazis and anti-Semites.  (more...)

Charlottesville, Va. Protesters Wield Torches, Chant Nazi Slogans

More coverage:

‘We have a future of power’: Torch-wielding white nationalists protest plans to remove Confederate statue

‘He loves flowers’: The insane true story of the day Canada’s prime minister met Hitler

King, surrounded by Nazi hosts, sits in the stands of Berlin's Olympic Stadium
during the All-Germans Sports Competition

Prime Minister Mackenzie King kept seeing lions.

While on the train from Paris to Berlin in 1937, he saw a lion-shaped cloud facing towards Germany. During a visit to the Berlin Zoo, a zookeeper allowed him to pat a lion cub on the head. While reading the bible aloud, he kept stumbling onto passages that mentioned lions.

“The lion has appeared over and over again,” he wrote in his diary.

For the 62-year-old King, it was as clear a sign as any that his visit with Adolf Hitler was to be the pinnacle of a divine mission to bring peace to an unsettled Europe.

The awkward Canadian leader had long believed that he had been elevated to the prime minister’s office for a higher purpose. And as a holy feeling seemed to enshroud King as he entered the Third Reich, he determined that this meeting with the Fuhrer was it; the pinnacle of his spiritual journey — “the day for which I was born.”  (more...)

‘He loves flowers’: The insane true story of the day Canada’s prime minister met Hitler

Related:

AP defends coverage of Nazi Germany after historian accuses wire service of cooperating with propagandists

I knew many New Agers at my alma mater who would have fallen for Hitler. Some did and still do.

Mesmerizing the New Age voter

By resigning, disgraced senator Don Meredith gets a regular pension, rather than a much lower lump sum

Trickle-down economics in action

The Liberal government is blaming its Conservative predecessor for the fact Don Meredith will be able to collect an annual pension now that the disgraced Ontario senator has formally resigned his seat in the upper chamber.

Meredith’s resignation became official Wednesday afternoon after it arrived at Rideau Hall, putting an end to his time in the Senate.

That decision provided Meredith a financial benefit, ensuring he would receive a regular annual pension payment rather than a one-time — and significantly lower — lump-sum payout.

A senator or MP who is expelled is only entitled to collect the contributions they made to the pension plan.

Treasury Board President Scott Brison, whose department oversees parliamentary pensions, said there is nothing in the law that would allow his department to deny benefits from a senator or member of Parliament who resigns.  (more...)

By resigning, disgraced senator Don Meredith gets a regular pension, rather than a much lower lump sum

Background:

Disgraced senator Don Meredith quitting Senate over sexual relationship with teen

Convicted perv Anglican minister target of proposed class-action lawsuit

A notorious former Anglican minister and scout leader convicted of sexually abusing dozens of indigenous boys over a 12-year period is among those named in a lawsuit seeking more than $100 million in damages for lifetimes worth of suffering.

Lawyers filed the class action suit on Thursday against Ralph Rowe, the disgraced former cleric who courts found used remote First Nations communities in northwestern Ontario and Manitoba as hunting grounds for young boys to sate his sexual appetites.

The suit also names the Anglican Synod of the Diocese of Keewatin in northwestern Ontario and Scouts Canada.

Rowe, who was ordained as an Anglican minister in 1975, spent the next dozen years flying himself in and out of isolated communities where he ran youth activities ranging from hockey games to overnight camping trips, usually in his capacity as either a priest or a registered leader with the organization now known as Scouts Canada.

Numerous criminal trials have heard that Rowe would groom young boys under the guise of playing games before ultimately sexually abusing them, sometimes for years.  (more...)

Convicted perv Anglican minister target of proposed class-action lawsuit

Survivors Rowe: He was a minister... from Loud Roar Productions on Vimeo.
For almost twenty years Ralph Rowe held a unique esteem in the isolated First Nation Reserves of Northern Ontario. As an Anglican minister and a Boy Scout leader, Rowe was revered and trusted by community elders and cultivated adoration from all the children he worked with. He had the perfect cover for a pedophile. Rowe abused an estimated 500 native boys throughout the 1970s and 80s.

“Survivors Rowe” documents the harrowing and tragic stories of three men who as boys were victims of Rowe. Joshua Frog, John Fox and Ralph Winter open their hearts to recount the abuse they experienced as children, and how their lives disintegrated because of it. A melody of pain, anguish, forgiveness and love, these three brave men embody the sacred truth that it’s only when one confronts their past, that they are able to face their future.

Germany investigating 275 cases of far-right extremism in military after years of Nazi support being ignored

In this Feb. 24, 1936 file photo a group of boys march beneath Nazi standards
in Berlin. Anti-Semitic propaganda had a life-long effect on German children
schooled during the Nazi period, leaving them far more likely to hold racist
ideas than those born earlier and later, according to a study published Monday,
June 15, 2015.

BERLIN — It started with an investigation into a suspected terrorist plot by an army soldier aimed at top government officials. But it quickly uncovered a larger problem.

Military police searching through barracks turned up Nazi-era military memorabilia that revealed a much broader presence of far-right extremists in the German army’s ranks, something commanders are now accused of having long ignored.

They are investigating 275 cases involving accusations of racism or far-right extremism stretching back six years, according to the Defense Ministry. The number represents a small minority in a force of nearly 180,000. But nearly 70 per cent of cases have emerged in the last year and a half, pointing to an accelerating problem that German military authorities are only now scrambling to address.

“In the past, individual cases were always examined, but it wasn’t seen or understood that these cases are not isolated, but there are networks and connections, also to extremists on the outside of the armed forces,” said Christine Buchholz, a member of Parliament from the opposition Left party.

“Now it is glaringly obvious to everyone that this problem has existed for a long time and poses an immediate threat to people,” she added.  (more...)

Germany investigating 275 cases of far-right extremism in military after years of Nazi support being ignored

‘They’re not safe’: Durham teacher speaks out about classroom violence

Safety in the classroom has been an ongoing concern for educators in Durham Region, but now some feel the situation has reached a breaking point.

“I was punched in the head multiple times in one week,” Jennifer, a front line teacher with the Durham District School Board, said, adding some of the children who initiated physical contact have been as young as seven or eight years old.

“It’s just not OK for anyone to hit, kick, spit, punch other kids, other adults in the building … teachers, EAs, principals.”

Global News has agreed to withhold Jennifer’s real identity as she said she feels speaking out could mean losing her job.

Jennifer works in an integrated classroom where students with special needs and those without are in the same class.

She said she has heard similar stories from other Durham schools, where teachers and educational assistants have been issued Kevlar-like jackets and shin pads.

Jennifer said she hasn’t received training and hasn’t been told how to wear the protective equipment. She said she has accumulated several reports over a six-month period of incidents she has witnessed or experienced.

“I’m afraid to go into the classroom — imagine what (the students) are feeling … It’s supposed to be the best time of their lives,” she said.  (more...)

‘They’re not safe’: Durham teacher speaks out about classroom violence

A few pertinent facts about Nazi war criminals in Canada

Imre Finta stood trial for war crimes in Canada.

Lubomyr Luciuk, in a March 9 opinion piece defending Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland from criticism because her grandfather had Nazi ties, attacks the effort to bring Nazi war criminals in Canada to justice. He writes: “just after the war’s end, Jewish Canadians were alarmed at the prospect of ‘Ukrainian Nazis’ escaping justice by posing as Displaced Persons.” Yet, the concern about war criminals escaping justice was not something that arose just after the Second World War; it continues to this day. The concern was not confined to Jewish Canadians. It was and is shared by every Canadian who cares about justice. And the concern was directed to all war criminals, Ukrainian and non-Ukrainian alike.

Luciuk calls the claim of “thousands of Nazi war criminals hiding in Canada” hysterical. Yet, research published by the University of Toronto Press written by former Department of Justice War Crimes Unit historian Howard Margolian sets out that Canada admitted 2,000 Nazi war criminals and collaborators.

Luciuk asserts that Mr. Justice Jules Deschênes, Commissioner for the 1985-1986 Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals, had a “peculiar bias” because he did not address Soviet war crimes. Yet, Justice Jules Deschênes was a distinguished, fair-minded judge. His report focused on the mandate it was given.

Luciuk writes: “It was fake news then and still is. Allegations about ‘Nazis in Canada.’ ”  The Commission on War Criminals, which limited itself to considering only those allegations submitted to it, concluded that there was prima facie evidence against 20 individuals.

Luciuk observes that “not a single person was ever convicted of being a ‘Nazi’ in a Canadian criminal court.” He omits to mention that the Supreme Court of Canada made the Canadian war crimes law unworkable by a ruling in the 1994 case of Imre Finta, a man responsible for shipping Jews off in box cars from Szeged, Hungary to Auschwitz and other camps. The court held that the fact that Finta thought the Jews were his enemies was a legally permissible defence.   (more...)

A few pertinent facts about Nazi war criminals in Canada

Related:

The Struggle for Justice: Nazi War Criminals in Canada

Question: Given the large numbers of crimigrants in Canada, and in view of the documented transfer of entire industrial complexes from Nazi-occupied Europe to Argentina, has any Nazi infrastructure taken root in Canada, either in the industrial or financial spheres? Could a consequent war chest provide the purchasing power needed to keep these Nazis immune from justice?

Black P-Stones leader Michael Hopson, the High School security guard who simultaneously ran a murderous gang

Sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish fiction from reality. In movies like The Substitute, starring Tom Berenger and Marc Anthony, and The Principal, starring Jim Belushi and Louis Gossett Jr., we’ve become familiar with vicious gangs roaming high schools and preying on teen students with help of the principal. But hey, that’s Hollywood! No way any teacher or school director would ever get mixed up with gangs while luring his students into a life of crime, right?

Wrong.

Meet Michael Hopson, a then 30-something-year-old security guard at Denbigh High School in Newport News, Virginia (photo below). Tasked with keeping students safe and keeping gang violence out of the school, Hopson had a sacred duty protecting the lives of children. Unfortunately, he did not care about any of that.

Working security at a high school was only a front for Hopson. He was a founding member of the Black P-Stones gang in Newport News and eventually became the group’s sole leader. Known as an OG, he collected monthly gang dues, ordered and presided over meetings, and oversaw the Black P-Stones criminal activities, which included drug distribution, home invasions, robberies, and lots of deadly violence.

He was also the gang’s premier recruiter, (ab)using his position as a high school security guard to entice youngsters to join his gang or buy some narcotics off him. Though a little bit of weed might not have hurt anyone, once a student joined the Black P-Stones he was expected to take part in everything that came with the gang life.

If you were running with Hopson that meant plenty of brutal beatings and deadly shootings as he sought dominance over the area’s gangland.  (more...)

Black P-Stones leader Michael Hopson, the High School security guard who simultaneously ran a murderous gang

What did Bobby learn at school today?