Blog about politics (mideast and pro-Israel, Canadian and local Montreal), world events, and random thoughts.

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The World I Know is updated on a semi-regular basis by segacs.

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2:26 AM
No posting this weekend

I'll be away from my computer this weekend (yay!) so posting will resume Monday. Have a good one!

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11:07 PM
Antisemitism on Plattsburgh campus

A student at Plattsburgh State University is charged with attempted murder as a hate crime after stabbing a fellow student, allegedly because he thought the victim was Jewish:

Prosecutors say a stabbing on a local college campus is a hate crime.

Police say Philip Robertson, 22, stabbed Jordyn Lavin behind a dorm at Plattsburgh State University in September.

According to court papers, Robertson went after Lavin because Lavin is Jewish.

Robertson is charged with attempted murder and assault as hate crimes, and is being held on $10,000 bail.

More details can be found in a campus report:

Plattsburgh State student Jordyn Lavin remembers walking behind Wilson Hall to smoke marijuana with his roommate, then feeling a knife pierce his back.

During a preliminary hearing Friday in Plattsburgh City Court, Lavin testified that his then roommate, Philip Robertson, accompanied him to a wooded area near the Saranac River the afternoon of Sept. 1.

Robertson handed Lavin a pipe and gave him permission to take the first hit, according to Lavin's testimony.

"He walked behind me, and I felt pain," Lavin said. "I could see the knife was in me."

After that first stab wound, Robertson allegedly asked Lavin if he is Jewish, saying Lavin sounds like a Jewish last name.

Lavin replied that he is not Jewish.

Lavin and Robertson were apparently roommates and friends, so it's hard to say what truly motivated this attack. Was this a symptom of the increasing virulent anti-Jewish sentiment on many college campuses, or an isolated incident of an unbalanced individual? Details are too sketchy to say at this point. But it's certainly worth watching carefully.

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2:06 PM
UTT firebombing suspect pleads guilty

The case of the fireboming of the UTT library last April moved a step closer to resolution today, as the chief suspect in the case accepted a guilty plea to arson in exchange for the conspiracy charge being dropped:

Mr. Elmerhebi kept his head bowed slightly and his eyes on the floor as the plea was entered.

Evidence read in court said his arrest in May was prompted by police wiretaps and surveillance.

He was tracked by police after tanks of kerosene found at the United Talmud Torahs school were traced back to a Canadian Tire store where the manager confirmed that Mr. Elmerhebi was an employee.

Store surveillance cameras and receipts confirmed him as the buyer of the tanks. Receipts were also found in his home when it was searched by police.

Sounds like a lot of evidence to me. Elmerhebi probably took the best deal he could in light of the probable guilty verdict.

Elmerhebi's mother has been charged as being an accessory, and has a court date still to come.

The school's reaction was fairly pragmatic:

School principal Sydney Benudiz was satisfied with the plea.

"Something wrong was done to our school and we hoped that justice would be served and it seems that it's going to be served," he said outside court. "We just want our lives back."

This is pretty much how the system is supposed to work. People commit a crime, they get caught, they get arrested, they get punished. The article didn't mention anything about sentencing but those details will likely follow.

However, I still think this should have been charged as a hate crime. I know this is a contentious issue especially among people who don't believe in hate crime legislation. But motive is something we should take into account when determining a punishment to fit a crime. We already do, when we consider that a calculated crime for profit, for example, is worse than a non-premeditated crime of passion. A crime motivated by hate or racism is more serious than one with most other motives, because of its potential to set off hatred among others in the community, and because of the offender's higher likelihood of reoffending. I think that in clear-cut cases of crime motivated by hatred, sentencing should be more severe.

A punishment that would truly fit the crime would be to compel Elmerhebi to contribute towards paying the millions of dollars that the Jewish community is now forced to spend on security guards for schools and campuses.

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9:42 AM
Union thuggery

Unions are supposed to protect employees from abusive management, and that's all very well and good. But who protects employees from their unions?

Blue-collar workers intent on disrupting snow-clearing operations Monday night intimidated colleagues into refusing their work assignments, Quebec's Essential Services Council heard yesterday.

Assignment foreman Gerard Poissant of the Sud-Ouest borough said that as he went from worker to worker, others would call out in the background: "The others refused, the others refused." And Poissant testified that a union delegate followed him around, saying: "This isn't union advice I'm giving you, but were it me, I would refuse."

The stress was so intense that two employees who had been prepared to take out the machines assigned to them booked off sick, he said.

In one case, the worker had already agreed to go out. But with the intimidation, he returned the keys, trembling, and announced he was going home, Poissant said.

Another blue-collar worker, a woman, badly wanted to work, and even told her colleagues that she desperately needed the money, he said.

"The others kept saying, 'The others refused.' She started crying and shaking," and at 9 p.m., she, too, booked off sick, Poissant said.

Unions have so much power under Quebec law that it's hard for employees to avoid caving under the pressure. And all too often, union leaders don't actually have the best interests of their members in mind; instead, they're out for their own political gains or personal victories. Employees in unionized fields have no choice but to be members, pay their dues, and toe the line... even if they disagree. And in cases like this one, where the Blue Collars are on an illegal work stoppage, it seems not even court injunctions can protect workers who actually want to do their jobs.

The system is broken. It needs to be fixed. Fast.

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1:59 PM
Cautious optimism?

The press is making a big deal of the comments that Mahmoud Abbas has made calling for an end to armed struggle by Palestinians:

"The uprising is a legitimate right of the people to express their rejection of the occupation by popular and social means," Abbas said. "Using the weapons was harmful and has got to stop."

[ . . . ]

"We, at this stage, are against the militarization of the intefadeh (uprising) because we want to negotiate. And because we want to negotiate, the atmosphere should be calm in preparation for political action," Abbas said. "That's why we have frankly called for . . . an end to the militarization of the intefadeh."

Too good to be true? You betcha! Reverting to type, Abbas has probably calculated that calling for less dead innocent Israelis would make him very unpopular among the Palestinian people, and has pretty much reversed himself:

"I don't want my comment on the demilitarization of the uprising to be misunderstood ... All I meant is that we are in a phase that does not necessitate arms because we want to negotiate," Abbas said in Riyadh where he ended an official visit Wednesday.

The problem with Abbas is that he'll never be more than a puppet leader. It doesn't matter what he truly believes, because he isn't strong enough to carry it out. Barghouti's withdrawal from the leadership race was probably little more than a calculation that right now, the world powers are clamouring for peace, so he figures he'll set Abbas up to fail. Then someone - Barghouti, or perhaps a Hamas leadership - can step in once the people are screaming for arms again.

Yes, I'm a pessimist. But it's hard to be much else when it comes to the Mideast.

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1:59 PM
NHL = No Hockey League

Things are looking really bleak for the NHL these days, with common ground still eluding the players and owners as the seconds tick down on any chance to save the season:

Last week, the players offered to take an across-the-board 24 per cent pay cut on existing contacts to help settle the stalemate. The league countered Tuesday with a graduated rollback that would see the top salaries cut by as much as 35 per cent while leaving the lowest salaries untouched.

The counter-offer from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was rejected by the union and there are no further talks scheduled.

Sure, life goes on. But without hockey, somehow the winter just seems... bleaker. Luckily I've been too busy at work to think about it much.

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1:07 AM
More random quiz time

Congratulations! You are Miranda.

Which Sex and the City Character Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

I also think I'm a bit addicted to that show.

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