I am not a lumber jack or a fur trader,
and I don’t live in an igloo or eat blubber or own a dog sled,
and I don’t know Jimmy, Sally or Suzie from Canada although I am certain they’re really really nice, uh.
I have a Prime Minister not a president.
I speak English and French, not American,
and I pronounce it about, not a boot.
I can proudly sew my country’s flag on my back pack,
I believe in peace keeping not policing, diversity not assimilation,
and that the beaver is a truly proud and noble animal.
…
I AM CANADIAN
from a Molson Commercial – IAM.ca
Better ’round us all up now eh? We must truly hate America because we love Canada. And that means that we are terrorists.
Sound ridiculous? Well that’s the argument a DA in PA is making against a high-school student who, it is alleged, was planning to bomb his high school.
[follow on the flip]
From today’s Toronto Star:
But two radically different portraits of the 17-year-old have emerged.
According to an aggressive media campaign abetted by the district attorney’s office in the Philadelphia area, he is a dangerous young man who was intent on blowing up his high school — because he didn’t like Americans.
To his family, friends, some classmates and his lawyer, he is a bright, techno-savvy prankster who is being tried publicly because he was proudly wearing an “I am Canadian” T-shirt when he was arrested.
One thing both sides can agree on — Biehn is in trouble and remains in custody, facing serious charges of making terroristic threats and possessing an incendiary device.
Police found some of the components that could be used to build a bomb in his bedroom, but not all the components for such a device, even though the district attorney is quoted as saying he had enough material to level the house.
It has raised the question as to whether Biehn is being accorded the same rights guaranteed an American or is being overly demonized because he is not from this country.
…
“They are clearly playing the anti-American card and trying him in the media,” said Biehn’s lawyer, William Goldman. He accused Bucks County District Attorney Diane Gibbons of breaching professional ethics by outlining the case and cooking up motives to local reporters before she received any information that could be used in Biehn’s defence.
The Central Bucks School District superintendent, Robert Laws, told reporters two students had stepped forward and told authorities the accused had bragged that he knew how to make bombs and planned to use them.
Gibbons also said the boy’s parents were unco-operative when their home was searched, and then told reporters in Pennsylvania: “He apparently has made it clear that he does not like America and that he would prefer to be in Canada.”
…
The anti-American link apparently stems from the T-shirt Biehn wore during a court appearance Friday, which sported a number of pro-Canadian slogans. Travis’ mother, a hockey player, brought the shirt back for her son after playing in a tournament in Canada.
The shirt carries slogans familiar to any Canadian. [see above for the contents of the tee]
…
What is wrong, Goldman said, is the anti-American card being played in the media by the county’s district attorney, resulting in a headline in The Allentown Morning Call which read: “DA: Teen bomb suspect hates U.S.”
He was wearing the T-shirt because he was wearing it under a dress shirt when taken into custody on Thursday evening, Goldman said.
“He was wearing the same outfit, right down to his drawers,” he said. “I respect the institution and when I go to court, I want to have my clients appropriately dressed. But when he’s apprehended at night, held overnight and marched into court by 8:15 a.m., there is no time to put a suit and tie on him.”
He also denied Biehn’s parents were unco-operative.
“We have a constitution in this country and it says you have the right to remain silent and you have the right to counsel. That’s all they did,” he said.
…
Laws told the Morning Call he understands the boy had made anti-American remarks to students.
Goldman said no such evidence has come to his attention.
Still, the newspaper reported on the weekend: “The 17-year-old Bucks County boy charged with having bomb-making equipment in his bedroom and threatening to blow up his school is a Canadian who hates Americans, prosecutors say.”
J.D. Mullane, a Bucks County Courier Times columnist, wrote: “It’s easy to mock school administrators who enforce extreme `zero tolerance’ policies by expelling kids caught with nail clippers and other `dangerous’ contraband.
“But few of us will ever deal with a character like Travis William Biehn.”
The county prosecutor says Biehn scrawled a bomb threat on a school bathroom wall on May 27, then drew a teacher’s attention to it.
However, Goldman says, the threat was washed off before police were called.
“We don’t know whether we’re dealing with a right-hander or a left-hander,” he said.
Holy fuck. Was he a threat? Who the hell knows at this point, they certainly don’t seem to have much evidence. But it truly frightens me that jingoism would go this far in the land of the free. The kid was wearing a fucking I AM CANADIAN t-shirt & that now means he hates Americans and wants to kill them?
Well better invade now since most Canadians have one of them there shirts too. I don’t since I’m not a big fan of wearing brands on my clothing, but after this, hell yeah I’m going to buy one. And I might just wear it the next time I cross the border too.
Pro-Canada = Al Qaida. Holy fuck, that’s just insanity and pretty damn dangerous for the future of the world and the US.
(one little aside of snark… and you wonder why the rest of the world might not be too keen on ya’ll these days…)
*disclaimer. I don’t really love Canada. I am married to a Yank. Please don’t arrest me… I look ghastly in ‘Gitmo orange’…
End rant…
you know I love ya’ll, but damn you make it hard sometimes… 😉
Cross posted at dkos
I think the population of Canada is about 30 million. If I’m wrong, please set me right. The population of the US is about 300 million. Since about half of US citizens hate GW Bush and all he stands for, that’s about 150 million people, more people than comprise the whole population of Canada, that are most likely NOT rightwing nutjobs. When you have that overriding dislike for US Americans, please remember the 150 million of us that are on your side.
considering I’m married to an American & lived in the US for 11 years, I don’t really see any overriding dislike of Americans in my statements.
What I hate is the current administration. And yes, I am proud to be Canadian as well.
(one little aside of snark… and you wonder why the rest of the world might not be too keen on ya’ll these days…)
I was responding to the above statement. Considering you are Canadian, I assumed you were included in your “rest of the world” statement. Hey, I’m not too keen on many of my fellow citizens these days.
no worries. I just get tired of defending (not here, but other places) what is perceived to be Anti-Americanism in Canada when it is really anti-military-industrial-corporate complex and jingoism. Most Canadians have friends or relatives in the States, visit frequently, live there, or watch American TV, so we have a different view of the US than Europe or the rest of the world… a nicer, neighbourly one at this point. And we respect and admire most of your founding fathers, or at least the words they put down on paper… But we still call bullshit when we see it & don’t like bullies.
So lately we’ve become quite patriotic ourselves and much freer in our statements about what we see wrong with our American cousins & what is right about what we’re doing up here. The days of the overly humble Canadian are over… Muchos gracias George Bush for awakening patriotism in something more than hockey. 🙂
Canada has a lot to be proud of. I wish my mother had retained her Canadian citizenship so I’d have dual citizenship. If I could, I’d hightail it to Canada and out of this insanity.
Seems like just another reich winger trying to get elected to a higher office to screw the rest of us Americans, who don’t hold to the “America right or wrong we are Americans”. Damn Media has tried and convicted the kid and not a shred of evidence was presented in a court of law. Looks to me like the reich wing are truly going to push forward and take control of our country come hell or high water, to hell with the constitution and all it has stood for all of these glorious years. I know America is not perfect, I know my government has done things that I do not approve of, yet I always felt I could help facilitate change. With the reichwingers I am questioning whether or not it can be changed. The fascists have taken so much control I don’t know if we can wrest it from them and return our country to some form of normalcy, whatever that is, I suppose it is where we do no more harm. I guess all I can do is wait for the next two elections and see if my fellow countrymen and women are willing to throw the vermin out and return our country to sanity.
How about the MP who is leaving the Liberal Party
because the party might tolerate gay marriage.
He has made himself a king-maker- now as Independent
he can vote against the Liberal budget and bring down
the government.
If gay people want to get married how will that affect him?
How will that hurt the country?
But calling another election, that will hurt.
Where’s my shirt that says “România – Va Iubesc!” ?
Will that get me arrested in those United States?? Do I hate America?
Pax
Well, you know, you Canadians are a pretty dangerous lot. I know, I used to live with one…my mother.
My mother came to this country (USA) when she was a child and received her US citizenship many years after arrival. My experience with my Canadian relatives is that they are chronically polite and have a “stiff upper lip” way of dealing with the world. I never ever heard my grandparents swear and my mother said “damn” once and then apologized for doing so.
and I pronounce it about, not a boot.
By the way, my grandfather, born on PEI, did pronounce about, “a boot” and house, hoos. Maybe that’s an Eastern Canadian thing.
My advice to the Canadian boy (and his family) in this article is…as soon as they are able, return to sanity (Canada).
So a high school age boy knows how to make a bomb – big news. In the 70’s we were always playing with explosives, and my older brother and his friends were even worse. He and a friend managed to blow up a room.
Oh and rockets…mixing solid fuel model rockets and firecrackers (or something stronger) makes a nice firework.
You still cross the border? Braver Cannuck than I’ll ever be. Off topic, but did anyone here see the ‘military presence in the far north’ piece on CBC last night? Spooky.