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Now that all his many cases against Maclean's magazine for running Steyn's "flagrant Islamophobia" have been dismissed, it's safe for the strangely retiring serial plaintiff Mohamed Elmasry to appear in public again. Elmo is launching a new magazine called The Canadian Charger, which I'd assumed was for Canadians who wish to charge the cost of their crappy grievance-mongering lobby groups to the taxpayer. But apparently Elmo is reduced to having to raise private capital for his literary venture. Blazing Cat Fur went along to watch the outpouring of support:
Elmo began his fundraising effort in earnest. He asked the crowd, which numbered possibly 200 at most; Who would be the 1st to pledge Ten Thousand Dollars? An awkward and prolonged silence was met by a revised supplication. Who would be the 1st to pledge Five Thousand Dollars? Barely a murmur was heard. Plaintively Elmo asked; Who would be the 1st to pledge One Thousand Dollars? At this point I hung my head in a sense of almost empathetic embarrassment.
Apparently, one hand did go up at the back. But it was just a minor Saudi sheik beating his fourth wife.
You'd think Elmo would be savvy enough to do as he did in his Maclean's suits and bring in some sock puppets to paper the room and run up the bids. As it happens, the evening was emceed by Head Sock Khurrum Awan but without the lovely Sockettes. He gave his usual winning performance:
Nervously, Khurrum Awan introduced himself as the evenings MC. Stumbling but brief in his remarks, he outlined the events schedule - it was his only official appearance. A lawyer this ill at ease speaking in public should be a concern to any potential client.
Oh, dear. Maybe Elmo needs to rethink his approach. Would you put your money where Khurrum Awan's mouth is? The star turn, by the way, was Talibanic totty Yvonne Ridley, never my idea of a non-stop laff riot, even before she converted to Islam.
Turning our attention to an even more spectacular fundraising debacle by Canadian "human rights" champions, the Black Rod's report on the titanic fiasco that is the Canadian Mausoleum - whoops, Museum - of Human Rights includes this cryptic aside on its new "Content Advisory Committee":
In January, the CMHR announced a new Content Advisory Committee of human rights scholars, specialists, leaders and acknowledged experts in their respective fields.
The group consists of the old advisory committee, minus two, plus six new names.
One of the two outcasts was Anthony Hall, the 9/11 Truther who was using his seat on the committee to bolster his credibility with his conspiracy-minded friends...
The other name missing from the new advisory committe is Ruth Selwyn, "former executive director, Canadian Human Rights Foundation". In March, 2008, she wrote to the editor of the Montreal Gazette attacking Mark Steyn, who you recall, fought a knock 'em down, drag 'em out battle with a human rights commission---and won.
Wrote Selwyn:
"It is a pity that space is given to Mark Steyn's self-serving campaign to ridicule human rights. Steyn's representation of marginal cases as the be all and end all of the work of human-rights commissions shows a lack of understanding of the system or, worse, a deliberate attempt to distort it.
Oh that we could move on and focus on the real issues such as the discrimination that people do face every day in Canada."
But now it seems it's Ms Selwyn who's moved on. Perhaps she could be an advisor to The Canadian Charger.
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