The Far Right in Thunder Bay: Tamara Johnson's groupies speak

Wow, the internet is a fascinating place. Now, a while ago, I did a blog post about Thunder Bay's Queen of far right, racist politics, Tamara Johnson. She is quite the piece of work, along the lines of a Tommy Robinson or Marie Le Pen. If she was living in the UK, I'm sure her favourite hang out events would be EDL rallies and Combat 18 meetings. She is racist to the core. And, sadly, she has a following. In Thunder Bay, Ontario, she got somewhere in the neighbourhood of 10,000 votes in the municipal election, and this was based almost entirely on a racist, far right agenda, where the demonizing of First Nation's people seemed to be the only platform she ran on. Bizarre and sad.

So, today, on Thunder Bay's own ultra right wing, and very bizarre Facebook page called Dirty Laundry Thunder Bay an admin named Chelsea went on a tearing whine fest about how poorly Tamara Johnson has been treated by the social media masses and Thunder Bay media, posting some screen captures of various posts, some of which were pretty threatening indeed.

Now, I do not agree with death threats in the slightest. Just don't do it, okay. It's serious business and it crosses a line. I mean, come on, Tamara is a complete idiot, but threatening her with death, even if it isn't a serious threat, is counter productive and wrong. I need to put that in here now to make sure that is clear. And now we shall carry on.

Anyway, the text of the Facebook post goes as such.

"Tamara Johnsons face was continuously criticized on Social media and on many facebook groups like CC by Derek halstead sikver . Her profile pictures were commented on by strangers whose purpose was to bully her . She was called a bimbo, a whore and a hooker. Her family was threatened and intimidated. The bimbo comment is most recently posted on tbaynews thread. How can we as a society stop bullying if we allow people to make these types of comments against women?. Tamara volunteers in our community and is a good mother yet is still continuously threatened . Why did tbaynews ignore these threats?. They were posted as a plea for help from her and not one person did the right thing to stop it . By allowing comments about an individual who is no longer a public figure. This furthers the notion that equality for women does not exist . It also furthers the notion that Caucasian woman can be bullied and told to go kill themselves without consequence. Until our community, news media , and police take a pro active approach to end ALL forms of Social media bullying .. Nothing will be accomplished and it will continue to segregate people. Although there are certain groups that are rabiddly against Tamara, there are even more fans and supporters. Nobody can deny that her popularity soared within a 1 year span that garnered her over 10 thousand votes in the city of Thunder Bay. This huge support base needs to be respected. Freedom of speech needs to be supported. We live in a democratic, civilized society and should not tolerate bullying/harrasment at all. We have been sent countless evidence of support for this woman and unfortunately too many screenshots of the abuse directed toward her. Most are too vile and racist to post on our site, pure racism directed toward Tamara - Admin Chelsea"

Oh my frickin' GAWD. The irony. Are these people for real?? Tamara Johnson is now even more of a victim?? How did this happen? What planet are these people living on? A blatant far right racist spews racist stuff and runs on an electoral platform that appears only to be based on the issue of race, and yet somehow she is a victim?

Now, I believe in free speech. I am not against that. As I said in the last blog post, I fully support people with racist views to share them. That way, we know who the vile racists are in our society and we can oppose them, counter them, protest against them and challenge them. They deserve being challenged. Free speech is a two way street. You say something stupid, and someone challenges you. If you put it out there, people will respond, especially when you are in the public eye. Now, of course, threats of violence and violence are not acceptable, but to feel as though one spewing racist, divisive, arrogant, cruel and disgusting stuff should be immune from accepting low brow rhetoric in return is just, well, stupid. If you set the bar low, as Tamara did, the response is probably not going to be warm, fuzzy and gentle.

But, apparently, the feedback to Tamara's bullying approach to race relations is in itself bullying and how on earth can we allow this in a free and civil society? Wait, so absolute racist bullshit is somehow good for our society, but saying not nice things to or about the person saying the absolute racist bullshit is crossing some line? Are you people for real? Do you even listen to yourselves, or are you too caught up in your own pure white fantasy world where whites are the victims of those oppressive Indians who are so racist against whites all the time. For frick sakes, this is stupidity beyond belief.

Ya, I defend her right to free speech. But I also defend the right of people to exercise their free speech right back at her, as they have done. No violence, no threats, I don't condone those, but I do condone absolutely grilling her and calling her out as the far right racist she is. It all makes me sad to see what my old hometown of Thunder Bay has become. I mean, racism has always been an issue there, there are no two ways about it. BUT, with the arrival of a far right mouthpiece who decided she would run for both municipal and provincial politics, Thunder Bay is sliding deeper down a scary slope, and 10,000 supporters of this far right candidate have proven how bad it is.

Here is some good stuff for you to read to find out more about our far right friend/foe, the Queen of Thunder Bay racism, the pride and joy of her far right supporters, one Tamara 'I'm Always the Victim' Johnson. Enjoy!

Tamara Johnson election ad 'shocks' Anishinabek Nation

Tamara Johnson: 'They threw me out' over Facebook comments

Mayor Keith Hobbs calls Tamara Johnson's statements 'disgusting'

An Open Letter to Tamara Johnson

Former PC candidate says she was booted from party for speaking the truth

‘Racist’ election ad sparks outrage

Tamara Johnson: Thunder Bay's Ann Coulter

Oh dear gawd, where do these people come from. Apparently, in this case, from a gift shop in the bowels of the Landmark Inn in Thunder Bay. It comes in the form of Tamara Johnson who could only be described as the Ann Coulter of Thunder Bay. Maybe a female version of Ezra Levant, the Sun News shit disturber that plays on extreme racial stereotypes to push forth far right ideas, with knee jerk, over the top reactionary rhetoric designed not to inform or make the world better, but simply to shock and piss people off. It's like a drug to folks like this. They seem to thrive on pissing people off, hurting people deeply, causing grief and just generally being ignorant pain in the asses. They accomplish little with their time in the spotlight other than that, really, and they have too much of an ego to see that what they are doing is completely unproductive.

So, this Tamara Johnson woman ran in the recent Ontario election in the riding of Thunder Bay- Superior North representing the Ontario Libertarian Party. Red flag? Indeed. As part of her campaign, just a few days prior to the election she put out a full page ad in the Chronicle Journal featuring her in some kind of a weird pose, looking like a cross between a high school kid trying to look sophisticated and a sophisticated lady looking like a high school kid. But, next to this rather odd image were a pile of words that caused a stir and for good reason.

Okay, wow, it sounds like Ontario has been taken over by money grubbing, ivory tower living, oppressive, ultra elite, ultra rich, super advantaged First Nations folks who have victimized poor Tamara to the point of tears. No wonder Ontario needs her! Only she can fight the unfair treatment that regular tax payers are facing as the result of the demands of Ontario's super citizen natives! She is the great white saviour for....whites. 

Now, I don't love jumping up and down and crying racist. But when the term is due, it's due. And here we have a textbook case of a racist. This is racism defined. The amount of ignorance crammed into the cheesy looking ad is ridiculous. It shows a complete lack of understanding, by a relatively well off white lady, towards the reality of life for First Nations peoples. It also shows a complete lack of understanding of Canadian history, the programs designed to force assimilation, the whole cultural genocide, the Residential school program, the fact that a Eurocentric system of governance and laws has been thrust on a population that didn't ask for it, etc. It shows a complete lack of understanding of treaties signed and promises made, which have often not been met anyway. Colonialism has been devastating to First Nations people in Canada. If there is a group in North America that can be described as oppressed, it is First Nations people. 

But, hark, somehow, we white people, and seemingly specifically Tamara, are the victims it would seem. How dare Natives get what they were promised. How dare Natives get high on their horse as super citizens and get unfair advantages and "handouts" that white people don't, thrusting them into a position of power and influence, giving them dominance and control over oppressed white people. Oh, wait, that's because that doesn't happen. It's the whites who have all the dominance and control. Damn, I guess Tamara didn't get the Facebook message. 

But, according to statements after she was criticized over this ad, she stands defiantly by them 100 percent and says that they are true. So, yes, apparently, Natives in Canada are the oppressors of the subjugated whites. And that's the truth, according to Tamara. Yes, she stands by that. Wow. At this point, can we say anything other than the fact that she is an idiot?

Now, I support her right to say these things, what with the whole free speech thing an all. Heck, in fact, I am more than glad she did run this ad. It shows how ridiculous and ignorant she truly is with a very racist agenda. In fact, it seems, based on this ad, that her entire agenda, her entire reason for running in the election was to stick it to the red man who has been oppressing whites for far too long. That appears to be about it. Her entire reason to run was based in racism! How pathetic is that! Imagine spending the time and money to try and get elected on a platform that seems based for the most part on hatred of an entire race. Why would you do that?? Has she been done horribly wrong or something? Has someone with brown skin caused her pain so she chooses to lash out in a knee jerk, random, stereotype driven way? What's the story here Tamara? I just don't get it. Well, wait, actually I do. Sadly, the rhetoric she uses is not all that uncommon in Thunder Bay, Northwestern Ontario, and here in my new home of Winnipeg. These worn out, tired and completely misguided stereotypes are repeated over and over when it comes to First Nations people. 

Basically, what I am saying, is that racism is rampant, brazen, open and generally accepted, in a way that it would not be accepted against almost any other group, and it has been this way for as long as I can remember. It's a part of the culture. It's just the way at has been, though hopefully not the way it will always be. Tamara coming forth with this ad has done the public a favour in helping to bring to surface the terrible reality of racism, and with her statements, she drew out some of the worst examples of racists in the area that supported her, loving her message of sticking it to Natives. This saddens me. It sickens me in fact. But, I look at it and wonder if this can be a catalyst for change. Maybe more people will look at what she has said, and will start changing views by getting educated about how her views are based in stereotypes and misconceptions. I, too, am on this journey, to grow and understand the relationship between Canada and it's First Nations people, often having to plow through this kind of racist bile to get to the truth. I now recognize more than ever just how dangerous ideas put forth by people like Tamara Johnson are. She is a racist. There is no two ways about this. Racist to the core. A text book example. And, as being such, we can learn from her. We can learn the direction NOT to take. We can look at the pain that she has created, the shitstorm she brewed, and the way she handles herself, in such a divisive and egotistical way, as a self centered, self serving bully with an over abundance of confidence and a complete deficit of understand and say , "I don't want to be that! I want to be better than that!" 

Rob Ford's Weight

Look people, we all know that the ridiculously ridiculous Mayor of Toronto (or IS he? Well, at the moment he still is), Mr. Rob Ford is a large man. But COME ON, surely there are other things that people can focus on, like, maybe the fact that he puts his football team before, you know, the well being and inner workings of the largest city in Canada. Making fun of his weight? That's just silly, petty playground "bullying" kind of stuff.

In this day and age when we must fight so hard for body image acceptance, the first thing that people want to pick on when it comes to this incompetent buffoon is his weight. Look, he's a big guy, we all know that. We know that for health reasons it's most likely the best idea to lose some weight, but physically he is who he is. Attacking the guy based on his weight is much akin to attacking someone like Barak Obama for the colour of his skin. How does Ford's weight come into play here?

Please, people, the guy has enough ridiculousness surrounding him that there is no need to go after his weight. If there is one way in which we should accept him, it is as who he is physically, even if we don't accept his politics. I feel for kids who turn on the TV or go to "social media" or whatever they are calling it these days, and see people making fun of Ford for his weight. If they happen to be on the larger side, they read this, look at themselves and....well, I wonder what they think?

Anyway, that's it. That's all. I don't like Rob Ford. I don't like his personality, his politics or his politics and his personality....and definitely his personality....and politics. But I accept him for who he is physically and don't believe that it plays any role in his personality....and politics. Leave him be on the weight issue people! Let's love our bodies for what they are! 

Persians, Oh How I Missed You So!

Oh goodness me. I made it home to Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada for a few days this month and I got to sink my teeth into some of Thunder Bay's famed PERSIANS! It was heavenly. Let me tell you, I have dreams about these things. And for whatever reason, they are exclusive to Thunder Bay. Why? I don't know, but I'm sure glad they exist somewhere. Here is a short video of the memorable experience of being reunited with my favourite dessert item after too long apart.

NIMBY'ers are Killing Thunder Bay!

Is it just me, or does it seem that almost anytime anything, and I mean literally ANYTHING, is proposed for Thunder Bay, it polarizes the community, and in the end, it all falls apart? From snowmobile races to a stock car track, recycling depots to development on the waterfront. Why do these things constantly become a big mess?? Now, the issue is an electricity generating "wind park".

Here is a project that can have excellent implications for Thunder Bay, through jobs, a cleaner environment, and possibly the start of a new green industry in the region. Face it, Thunder Bay needs jobs. It also needs energy.

Those concerned about the negative effects of wind turbines have a right to be concerned, HOWEVER, we have been living in the midst of a coal burning electrical plant and several paper mills for years that are far worse to our health than wind turbines will ever be. As far as I can see, the project won't have turbines very close to houses. If I am wrong, I apologize. For that matter, I wonder how many of these people who are against this development for health reasons run around on snowmobiles, have motor boats, and drive big SUV's? Guess what. They aren't the best for your health either, folks.

Eyesores? Depends on ones point of view. Isn't a giant red and white smoke stack rather an eyesore? There has been a long abandoned ski ramp at Big Thunder for years and on Mount McKay there is an abandoned ski hill! People would rather look at these than wind turbines? I have flown into European cities, looking down at these wind turbines turning away on the outskirts of town and thought to myself, "This is great! We need more of this in Canada!"

The tiring outcry that is "PROPERTY PRICES!" is ridiculous. The way Thunder Bay is going, there are less and less people around to buy property. Property prices only mean something if you can sell your property. Otherwise, the value is zero! And, the assumption is that everyone who wants to buy a house would not want to see a wind turbine. That isn't true. So, lay off of the property price crap.

Thunder Bay needs to progress to survive. It will never do that as long as the city becomes so polarized each and every time a change is proposed. This project is a positive project for Thunder Bay. It must happen.

DOCTOR Becker, I Presume?

I can't figure out if this guy is a half full or half empty kinda guy, and when I say that, I mean...IN HIS HEAD!

Here is a letter to the editor from my hometown paper, The Chronicle Journal, in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada (http://www.chroniclejournal.com/includes/datafiles/print.php?id=256703&title=Why%20I%20don%E2%80%98t%20support%20the%20cancer%20industry) from Tuesday, April 13th, 2010. It goes as follows:

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From www.chroniclejournal.com

Letters to the Editor
Why I don‘t support the cancer industry
Sunday, April 11, 2010

Summer is just around the corner and so is the Walk for Cancer and the Run for Cancer and a multitude of requests for donations to help the cancer industry find a cure for cancer.
This multi-billion-dollar-a-year industry has been operating for so long that employees have been retiring after comfortably working their entire lives in it.
So, please leave me off your request list because I refuse to support the search for a cure.
There is no cure for cancer!
After spending billions of dollars a year for more than 60 years, if there were a cure for cancer, don‘t you think they would have found it by now?
How many decades must we search before we finally admit there is no cure and there are better areas to research?
We need to spend less time and money looking for a non-existent cure and put more emphasis on earlier detection, education, prevention and treatment.
Look at our archaic treatment methods – surgery, chemo and radiation. These treatments haven‘t changed for more than half a century.
The objective of these primitive treatments is to poison the body almost to the point of death so that the weaker cancer cells are destroyed and hopefully the body recovers. Sometimes, it doesn‘t and even when it does the results can be extremely debilitating and painful. Is this the best we can do after more than half a century?
For decades we‘ve known that cigarette smoking kills half of all smokers and yet we still allow the sale of cigarettes. That‘s insanity! We need to help smokers stop smoking.
We know that exercise, weight control, better diet and screening can reduce cancer by more than 50 per cent so why are we wasting time and money looking for a non-existent cure?
Cancer has always been with us – it‘s found in Egyptian mummies and dinosaur bones. It cannot be eradicated but it can be drastically reduced.
Cancer industry spokesmen tell us that we are making great strides and that cancer patients are living longer. Yes, they are living longer not because they found a cure but because of better education, prevention and earlier detection. That‘s where we need to spend our money. And, we need to develop better than primitive treatments.
You might think I‘ll change my mind if I get cancer. Wrong! It‘s not a matter of if I get cancer; it‘s a matter of when. You see, three of my grandparents died of cancer (we aren‘t sure about the fourth), both of my parents had it and my father died of it. If nothing else kills me, my chances of dying of cancer are 100 per cent. That‘s why I won‘t contribute a cent to searching for a non-existent cure. I‘ll start contributing when the majority of research is directed toward education, prevention, earlier detection and better treatment. After all, my life depends on it and so might yours.

Gerold Becker
Thunder Bay

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Well, Dr. Gerold...and I PRESUME that you are a Doctor, seeing as you seem to know it all, you frickin' know it all. Where do I even START! Well, let's start here. As someone who has had cancer, and has been cancer free for many years now, all I can say is...SHOVE IT UP YOUR FRICKIN' BUTT! That is exactly what happens to me every year or so. I had colon cancer. I get regular colonoscopies. They have been saving my life. When my grandfather got colon cancer...HE DIED. There were no other options. Obviously the billions Dr. Becker speaks of has gone to SOMETHING. For example, genetic testing, to see WHERE the cancer comes from and what can be done about it and how the future might be different for later generations of my family, and others. I've been involved in that ever since I was diagnosed with colon cancer. After surgery, I did have chemotherapy and am DAMN GLAD I did! Why? Because it saved my life. Sure, it wasn't fun, but, gosh darn it, neither is dying, you bone head! And, thanks to research, they have been figuring out how to best administer chemotherapy to do the most good for the least discomfort...DR. BECKER! So, that money is just being thrown out the window making lives like mine BETTER. When I was having my chemo, I was part of a trial drug program, to test if a new medication could FURTHER help folks like me. But, apparently, nothing has changed in over 50 years, according to DR. FRICKIN' BECKER! Apparently he feels that more money has to be spent on education and prevention. No kidding, Doc! You don't say? Hey, have you not looked around to see that this is happening!??? Maybe he hasn't noticed all of the breast screening programs that have sprung up as just ONE example? Maybe he hasn't watched, sayyyy, a television in his lifetime. You will find plenty of information on that thing, DR. BECKER. I presume the guy doesn't have the internet. No, couldn't. If he did, he could possibly look this shit up and actually know what the heck is talking about. Perhaps his head is stuck so far into a pit of vomit that he doesn't realize the efforts that are being made by many cancer charities in doing EXACTLY what he blabbered on about (you know, the education thing, and the prevention thing) WHILE giving cash to those trying to figure out how to find a cure. Sorry Mr. pessimist Dr. BECKER! You are SO right. We should abandon all hope, especially now when there IS progress being made, because you can't be bothered to actually research and find out that, yes, indeed, there IS progress being made. More and more people ARE surviving, and living longer lives cancer free. Sounds pretty good to me. Would this have been possible without research? Mmmmmmmmmm. According to DR. FRICKIN' BECKER, no! I beg to differ. I HAVE been on the receiving end of the progress that is being made. Thank GOODNESS for the donations that have gone towards cancer charities and such. What I think DR. FRICKIN' BECKER should do is read a book or something, and maybe learn about what is going on around him! It is clear he hasn't done this. What kind of Doctor IS this guy, anyway??

Crazy Kids and Their Baggy Pants!

Skimming through the internet, I came across this piece in the Manotick Messenger (http://www.manotickmessenger.on.ca/). It was written by a fellow named Jeffery Morris. His column is entitled "From the Other Side". I am grateful to him for writing this, for I no longer feel quite as square as I did prior to finding this. Now, I am presuming that he has written this with his audience in mind. And, based on that assumption, I'm guessing his audience isn't very youthful. That is the only explanation I can think of. Not that I intend to be mean spirited here. I liked this column. It cracked me up. That can only be a good thing.

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Street cred, mall cred, no cred

“Pants on the ground, pants on the ground.
Lookin’ like a fool with your pants on the ground.
With the gold in your mouth, hat turned sideways,
Pants on the ground.”
Larry Platt, 2010 American Idol audition contestant and YouTube sensation

There is nothing quite like the experience of clothes shopping with teenage boys.

Okay, I couldn’t even begin to imagine the horrors of clothes shopping with teenage girls. But at least most girls have an idea what to look for. Perhaps, at times, appropriateness is not at the forefront of their priority list, but at least most of them know what look to go for.
With boys, well, most don’t have a clue. I know this, because when it comes to fashion, I don’t either. I never have. I never will. I have been stuck in this rut for about 30 years. And now, with teenage boys of my own, the number of fashion dufuses on Planet Morris has tripled.
So, I went on a scouting mission for them. I was at the mall – one of those big city type malls in Ottawa.

What is out there for a kid beyond a pair of jeans and a hoodie?
Well, not much.

I watched kids walk by me. They were the mall people. They hung out in the food court. They loitered around the cell phone accessory kiosk. They sat and texted and downloaded iTunes and they twittered and skyped and they talked about apps.

So I kind of watched them and even kept tabs on which stores they went in. They definitely had a look. I’m not sure what the look was. It was like there was a moat between the kingdom of hip-hop and the land of skateborders, and these kids were stuck on a raft in the middle of it.

The New York Yankees’ designer hats were on sideways, and the chains around their necks had dog tags which were worn on the outside of their seemingly too small t-shirts. Two of them had the elastic waist bands from their boxers peeking out above their low-slung jeans. The crotch of their jeans was somewhere down between their shins. A couple of them had loosely fitting hoodies over the shirts, but they weren’t anything like the grey hoodies with a simple Nike logo like my kids would wear.


“Call yourself a cool cat with your pants on the ground.
Walkin’ downtown with your pants on the ground!
Giddy-up, Pants on the ground.”


I came home, wondering if there was something beyond simplicity for my boys. I don’t want them to look like punks or to look like they would call all of their friends “G”. I don’t want them to look like they belong at a 50 Cent concert.

I just want them to look like who they are.
Regular kids.

I was just about to go on a rant about this when I saw something interesting on a U.S. news channel.

In New York, where this look is said to have originated due to what may or may not be an embargo on body-length mirrors, a state Senator is personally attacking the pants on the ground look.
Senator Eric Adams has purchased ads on two Brooklyn billboards with more on the way to promote his “Stop the Sag” campaign. Adams, a retired cop who is African-American, has also made an online video and claims “You can raise your level of respect if you raise your pants.”

The look, which has been popular since the 1990s, originated from the hip-hop and urban fashion scenes. It has been hotly debated throughout the U.S. at council meetings, school board meetings, on TV programs like Dr. Phil, and has even gone to courtrooms. The Dallas School Board embarked on a “Pull Your Pants Up” campaign in 2007, and last year, a St. Petersburg, FL high school ordered thousands of plastic zip ties for students to hitch their pants up. Bill Cosby attacked the look at a civil rights rally in 2004, saying that it gave black youths a negative portrayal as a demographic. Even the President, Barack Obama, slammed the look in a 2008 interview and speech.

Mark-Evan Blackman of the New York Fashion Institute of Technology, says the low-slung pants look is derived from the unbelted and oversized look of prison uniforms. The look was initially a symbol of street credibility. The style quickly spread from inner cities to suburban malls, both in the U.S. and Canada.

It makes you wonder. If the once street cred look is considered to be the look of a gangsta thug prison inmate and it is considered to be embarrassing for an entire culture and demographic, then how and why are we allowing our youths to emulate this look and give it, well, mall cred?

As I have been guided out of fashion purgatory this year, I have learned that pleated pants make me look 30 pounds heavier and that there is a world beyond pastel-coloured golf shirts and a five dollar haircut. For my kids, maybe a pair of jeans and a hoodie isn’t such a bad look for them? Maybe I’ll surprise them and get them a t-shirt. I’m not sure who Justin Bieber is, but I’m sure that they would love these matching tops with his face on them.

Just kidding.

Pants on the ground.

Jeffrey Morris was the 2008 OCNA Columnist of the Year. His book, From the Other Side: It's No Use Sacrificing a Chicken if You Can't Read the Entrails, is available at Videoflicks and the Manotick Messenger offices, and online at www.canadabooksonline.com.

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