September 9, 2002
You can get anything you want at Suzuki's restaurant
Jacob Richler’s review of the tony, environment-kissing, Restaurant C in Vancouver is destined to have restaurant reviewers topping the endangered species series. In his recent restaurant review, the cheeky Richler told the truth, with his Canada’s National Post headline writers describing a menu that is "a sop to the environment endangering the taste buds".
And that’s just for openers.
"This seafood Restaurant C (the name Sea was taken, presumably) has been widely acclaimed since it opened in the spring of 1997," Richler writes. "Most recently, it took seven medals at the 2001 Vancouver Magazine restaurant awards, the gold prize for best seafood restaurant amongst them. More intriguing still, last November Restaurant C began a partnership with the David Suzuki Foundation in order to support the idea of a more responsible sustainable exploitation of our marine resources. The restaurant uses only humanely caught wild fish whose stocks the Suzuki foundation deems abundant and unthreatened. "
Describing the menu’s self-described `live-caught’ halibut, Richler explains that "they call it thus not because other restaurants are cooking fish that wash up dead on shore but because these halibut are apparently shipped to shore frolicking happily in a tank, has excellent texture and its quality and freshness are readily apparent."
"The $8.50 of the nearly $300 bill that went to the Suzuki Foundation is very small consolation. Write him a personal cheque for $10 the next time you eat out in Vancouver if you really feel like it, I say, but have your fish somewhere else; cooking is far too important to be left the environmentalists."
PETA getting rich
It’s no wonder why PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) won’t move away from radical animal rights activism. They’re getting rich.
According to the Internal Revenue Service of the United States, PETA has been making over 10 million dollars per year for over the last five years.
PETA’s website promises that your donation will go help animals, but it has been discovered otherwise.
It was recently discovered that PETA donated $1,500 to the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) to support their "program activities" back in the year 2000.
The FBI considers ELF a terrorist organization.
ELF’s "program activities" include the arson of a $12-million mountaintop lodge at Vail, Colo., spiking trees in Idaho’s Nez Perce National, burning down a barn and cutting fences at a wild horse facility operated by the Bureau of Land Management, setting fire to a biotechnology research facility at the University if Minnesota, and numerous other destructive acts. According to the FBI’s counterterrorism division, ELF has caused $43-million in damage in the past six years.
The Centre for Consumer Freedom has recently discovered that PETA donated $45,000 to the "support committee" for Rodney Coronado, who was convicted of setting fire to a research facility at Michigan State University. They have also discovered that PETA donated $5,000 to the committee for Josh Harper, an associate with ELF’s sister organization, Animal Liberation Front (ALF), members of which also commit violent acts.
Meanwhile, PETA has been granted a tax-exempt status in all donations they receive.
A group of Americans has launched a petition to the IRS for tax-exempt donations to PETA.
Who let the cats out?
It’s perfectly reasonable for activists in the radical Animal Liberation Front (ALF) to set free animals from scientific laboratories--but not when it comes to their own.
At the end of July, Canada’s RCMP raided the house of ALF spokesman David Barbarash in Courtenay, B.C. The search and subsequent seizure of Barbarash’s computer and computer files was conducted on behalf of law enforcement from two counties in the State of Maine, under the auspices of the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Treaty.
"Our friends were questioned, threatened and harassed when they arrived to feed the cats, and our indoor cats were let outside to fend for themselves," Barbarash complained to the Toronto Star.
Barbarash also laments that the RCMP did not stick to ALF- related materials in items seized from his house under the search warrant.
"Notes from the kitchen table with instructions to friends on feeding our cats and watering our garden while away on vacation," were confiscated by the RCMP.
Barbarash, who seems to have made a career harassing citizens and corporations in the name of animal liberation, is also dissed the RCMP released his name and address to the media.
"They did this knowing I had previously filed a complaint when I received implied death threats (bullets left on my car) and verbal attacks and threats from hunters in the fall of 2000 after hunters invaded an animal rights video night I was hosting in Courtenay.
"One of my biggest fears, then and now, and which I made very clear in my complaint, was that these hunters would discover my home address. It seems the RCMP are not concerned with threats of violence against people they don’t like, and are apparently willing to help facilitate such violence," Barbarash said.
What the ALF spokesman left unsaid is his wiliness in dealing with authorities. When a search warrant was out for his arrest, he once fled from Canada to the U.S., before being caught and sent back to face up to charges.
Meanwhile, the ALF press office (Barbarash himself at last count) is seeking monetary donations to "help cover our legal expenses, and to help cover the cost of replacing computers and software."
ALF:
Terrorists before Sept. 11
Activists in the radical Animal Liberation Front (ALF) blame Sept. 11 for the clamp down by authorities against their members.
"The RCMP used a post-Sept. 11 newly formed anti-terrorist team to raid the home of ALF spokesperson David Barbarash on July 30, 2002," writes Barbarash in an ALF press release.
…"There is one thing we must be clear on. This raid is not about animal rights issues or actions, this raid was about how we all have lost a large chunk of basic civil liberties and human rights," reads a separate ALF press release, "It’s about how we really do live under the rule of a police state where it’s no longer allowable to speak your mind or express beliefs which oppose oppression, and which challenge the corporate/military governments. To do so risks police raids, possible arrests and lengthy jail terms.
"For many of us, we’ve understood and watched the erosion of our freedoms for many years, and we’ve become very alarmed at how this deterioration has increased drastically since Sept. 11, 2001. And yet, still it takes major police action, like this latest raid, for the concept to really sink in. Our `western civilization’ is nothing more than a glorified prison.
"This is it. The time is now. This is our life, and how events unfold in our lifetime will be the difference between a life of freedom for all or a life lived under the boot of fascism. The police state is here; do we live, fight, on our feet? Or do we die on our knees? Drastic words, perhaps, but what kind of world do we really want to live in?"
ALF complains it has been treated like terrorists since Sept. 11.
It seems that ALF activists were acting like terrorists long before Sept. 11, 2001.
Enron’s favourite greens
Disgraced corporate giant Enron had a lavish financial relationship with an array of environmental groups supporting the Kyoto Protocol and other extreme eco-policies.
The US-based Capital Research Centre, (CRC), which has been tracking corporate philanthropy for the past 14 years, discovered the interesting Enron connection.
CRC publishes the Foundation Watch newsletter.
Among the top 40 non-profit groups receiving corporate contributions for 1998 (most recent data) are:
Conservative International $2,224,000
Nature Conservancy $1,427,215
Environmental Defense Fund $1,047,900
Chesapeake Bay Foundation $1,012,500
World Wildlife Fund $713,150
Conservation Fund $489,000
American Forests $305,000
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