Louise Arbour Welcomes You To Administrative Unit 34B

Dear New Resident,

Welcome to Administrative Unit 34B.

We trust that the time you spend in our prefecture will be healthful and prosperous. We ask you to speedily sign the standard paper work and releases, and also to surrender your former identification card and to carry your new identification card at all times. Among other documents, we ask for a complete list of all your friends, partners, and biological relatives, living here or elsewhere, so that when the last such person dies, we can take down your grave stone (should you reject cremation).

Tomorrow is the inter-prefecture semi-finals in football. We hope to see you there and rooting for our home team. “BEEs Sting” In a slightly more rarified event, Homer Smith, one of our centenarians, will be interviewed on Friday at 1 pm in Great Prefecture Hall by Station 1. Smith was at the signing of the paperwork—some 60 years ago—which effectuated the division of old District 34 into our modern prefectures: A, B, and C. The Smith interview is open to the public and free.

Our administrative unit’s official motto is: Health, Fairness, Environment, Culture. So it should not surprise you that we chose you among other applicants seeking to immigrate to our (now your) prefecture because you have (as far as we can discover) no strongly held views, on anything. We believe that (former) outsiders like you from distant regions add to our ever-growing cultural diversity, but we seek to do so in a way that guarantees our social cohesion.

In the event that you violate a minor domestic regulation (i.e., under Schedule 1 and its annex) and you are under 18, you will be assigned community service and ordered to apologize to any victims of your wrongdoing (should they remain alive). If you violate a major domestic regulation (i.e., under Schedule 2 and its annex) and you are over 18, you will be sent down for correction, but we cannot send you back to your former prefecture, as it is in political disarray and your human rights may be threatened by your return there. Your statutory right to residence vests after 60 days; your statutory right to vote in municipal elections vests after 6 months; your statutory right to vote in prefecture-wide elections and for an inter-prefecture delegate vests after 1 year. These notifications are in accord with the Inter-Prefecture Notifications & Paperwork Regulation, Official Journal and Records 13/4401, as amended, 16/8899, as amended, 25/1276.

Sincerely,

/s/

Senior New Residents’ Facilitator

Did you see the April 1, 2016 “Munk Debate?” The resolution debated was: 

“Be it resolved, give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free . . . .” 

It was on the global refugee crisis, particularly the crisis in Europe. The participants were, in support of the motion, Louise Arbour & Simon Schama, and against the motion, Nigel Farage & Mark Steyn. The full debate was live streamed and then posted on Youtube, but it has since been taken down. If you register with the Munk Debates on its website, and it is for free, you can see the full debate. It is available here.

I am not going to comment on the debate’s details. It is worth watching in full. There are several good reviews, including one by Douglas Murray, of the Henry Jackson Society, in The Spectator. 

I think there was some deep support among the speakers and the audience that Western society has to be more assertive and actively integrate newcomers. [at 56:00–57:45 Steyn, at 1:03:30ff Steyn & Schama] Steyn made the point that to do that Western societies have to stand for something, have to believe something, have to have a history, language, and culture. There has to be something for the newcomer to integrate into.

I am not entirely sure Louise Arbour agreed with that above. 

Who is Louise Arbour?: 

“The Honourable Louise Arbour’s career of public service includes sitting on the Supreme Court of Canada from 1999 to 2004, acting as the Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and serving as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. She was CEO of the renowned International Crisis Group from 2009 to 2014. Arbour is a Companion of the Order of Canada and recipient of twenty-seven honorary degrees.

Arbour is a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy and of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty. She is also a member of the Advisory Board of The Coalition for the International Criminal Court. She chaired an inquiry commission that investigated certain events at the Prison for Women in Kingston, Ontario, and has also served as a member of the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security.

Arbour has been a Companion of the Order of Canada since 2007 and a Grand Officer of the Ordre national du Québec since 2009, as well as a Commander of the Légion d'honneur, and has been decorated by both Spain, Colombia and Belgium. She is currently a jurist in residence at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP.”

[here] 

Again, at one point, Steyn stated:

Holding a passport does not make you Canadian and does not make you Belgian and does not make you French. [at 1:04:30]

Later, Arbour stated:

If you have a Canadian passport, you are a Canadian citizen. [at 1:12:34]

As a technical, legal matter, Canadian nationals get to hold Canadian passports, and they are “Canadian citizens” in this legal sense and also in the everyday layperson’s sense. But if that is all it means to be a Canadian citizen, you can kiss social cohesion and integration in the West goodbye.

And, Louise Arbour welcomes you to Administrative Unit 34B.

Seth

PS: My co-bloggers do good work. So, please have a look around New Reform Club.

PPS: Here are links to Mark Steyn's posts on the Munk Debate. [here] [here] [here] [here]

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SethBTillman ( @SethBTillman )

Seth Barrett Tillman, 'Louise Arbour Welcomes You To Administrative Unit 34B,' New Reform Club (Apr. 10, 2016, 3:38 PM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2016/04/louise-arbour-welcomes-you-to.html>;

Seth Barrett Tillman, 'Part II, Louise Arbour's Millions [of migrants] [of undocumented aliens] [of asylum seekers] [of stateless persons] [of internally displaced persons],' New Reform Club (Apr. 11, 2016, 7:38 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2016/04/part-ii-louse-arbours-millions.html>;

My prior post is here: Seth Barrett Tillman, Trump Voters and Modern American Legal Academia, The New Reform Club (Apr. 8, 2016, 5:41 AM)