Don't step in that. It smells bad and it's tough to get off your shoe.

The Mound of Sound has tripped over The Spade. Yup, he wasn't watching and now he's got something on his shoe that just doesn't seem to want to come off.... left on the sidewalk by none other than Werner Patels.

I don't visit Werner Patels. The self-described journalist and political pundit is so totally full of shit that it literally oozes out of him leaving a trail of unseemly residue that takes more than a stick to clean up. But other people do keep an eye on him. So, TMoS, meet CC - consummate Werner-Watcher.

Patels regularly gets things wrong but his take on the TASER incident at Vancouver International Airport was absolutely beyond the pale. Devoid of actual facts, Patels attacked the decedent in the event with words like people like that, animal, and suggesting that the consequences of Dziekanski's actions included a death sentence.

The Taser is the best approach available. The public needs to be protected from such animals. In the (good) old days, he would have been shot; with a Taser, death is not the most common outcome at all. But as I also said, if you act like an animal, you have to be prepared to face the consequences, including death.

Interesting that Patels is so uninformed to believe that in the (good) old days a peace officer would have drawn his service sidearm and simply shot an obviously unarmed person. Having had several relatives who were policemen, I can state with complete confidence that Patels, so-called journalist and political pundit, is so obviously wrong that it doesn't bear further attention. My grandfather, through his entire career as a patrol cop, never drew his firearm once except on the pistol range. Patels simply doesn't know what he's talking about. Or maybe he's talking about the (good) old days in some other country.

And then he proves it with this. Referring to Dziekanski's lack of English: (Emphasis mine)

But generally speaking, you're wrong, Dorothy: he was not a visitor but an immigrant, and according to the letter of our immigration rules and laws, speaking at least one of the two official languages is actually a requirement for immigrating to Canada (it's only because of the morons working at Immigration Canada who don't enforce the law -- in fact, they break it on a regular basis -- that we keep receiving immigrants who don't even meet the most fundamental of all requirements).

One might expect that a journalist and political pundit would speak with some authority. You know, back up that statement with, oh, I don't know, how about a little bit of research?

You see, Patels is not only quoting law, but he is publicly accusing federal civil servants of violating the law and negligent performance of their duties.

Strong stuff coming from a journalist.

Except that Patels is either intentionally misleading his readers or is just plain too lazy to look up the facts.

There is a requirement for some immigrants to have a knowledge of either French or English. They fall into a specific class as described here.

Skilled workers have education, work experience, knowledge of English or French, and other abilities that will help them to establish themselves successfully as permanent residents in Canada.

That is a requirement specifically for skilled workers entering Canada under that specific category.

But Dziekanski was not entering as a skilled worker and since that is the only class of immigrant that must actually meet a language requirement, Patels is not just wrong, but profoundly wrong. Remember, he has accused federal employees of intentionally breaking the law.

Dziekanski was entering Canada under "Family Class", sponsored by his mother. Once here, such immigrants are then given the opportunity to learn English or French. How do I know? Well, I looked it up and found this.

The Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) Program provides free basic French and English language courses to adult permanent residents, refugees and protected persons.

As you can plainly see, an immigrant has to get here first and receive permanent resident status before being enrolled in language training.

Let's add to that, shall we. Even those entering as skilled workers or professionals receive a language assessment as a part of the immigration process. The language score is weighted extremely high in the immigration process for this class of immigrant. Yet Patels is stating that federal public servants are intentionally ignoring this requirement in violation of the statute.

Does he have proof?

I would say, you can't make this shit up, but Patels obviously did. Just like his so-called journalist and political pundit label. I'm sure if you question him long enough he'll also come up with an iron-bound (and totally bogus) requirement that some immigrants are required to bleach themselves and straighten their hair before arriving in Canada.