Leftist woman befriends jailed terrorism suspect

The Press-Enterprise (Riverside Co, CA edition) which sourced the Toronto Globe and Mail | January 4, 2004 | Colin Freeze

[Cvengr]

INMATE: She has a room waiting for him. Ottawa lists him as a threat to Canadian security.

Toronto-The Canadian government describes Hassan Almrei as a Muslim fundamentalist with links to al-Qaida and Afghan training camps, a man so dangerous that his very presence in Canada threatens the nation's security.

But Diana Ralph has an entirely different notion about the threat presented by the 29-year-old immigrant from Syria.

She says the jailed man, whom she has gotten to know in recent months, is so harmless that she has spent thousands of dollars renovating her Toronto home so Almrei can have a basement apartment to live and pray in should he be released from solitary confinement.

The politically left-leaning woman explained that the story of her friendship with Almrei is a distinctly Canadian one.

"Where else would you have a Jewish lesbian connect with a fundamentalist Islamist?" she asked during in an interview.

Born in the United States, Ralph already shares her new home with her partner, her son and her son's wife. Even though she didn't know Almrei before the summer, she said she has all but adopted him after learning of his case.

Almrei has been jailed in Canada for the past two years, He first came to Toronto as a refugee claimant in 1999.

He is now one of 25 immigrants declared a threat to Canada's national security, so deemed on a certificate that has been signed by two federal Cabinet ministers who have access to classified information from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

This deportation process involves secret government evidence to which even Almrei and his lawyer are not privy. "This seems very parallel to me to what was going on in the early stages of fascism in Germany," Ralph said.

She is also dismissive of the threat al-Qaida presents to North America. She argues the United States was complicit in the attacks that killed 3,000 of its own citizens two years ago.

[Cvengr]

Maybe the reporter misunderstood the refuge as one for the live and pray,...when the 'Jewish lesbian leftist' perhaps meant a place for him to live and prey.

In the words of 'Ralph', "Where else would you have a Jewish lesbian connect with a fundamentalist Islamist?".

Where else, indeed?

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[Frances_Marion]

"hop on my back", said the snake "and I'll carry you across this river..."

[Cvengr]

"This seems very parallel to me to what was going on in the early stages of fascism in Germany," Ralph said.

I wonder how early in the stages she is referencing,...pre-Mein Kampf/beer hall stage?

[demnomo]

Yup. You nailed it...

[Cvengr]

I looked on the net for the article but it doesn't seem to come up anywhere. The article posted was verbatim the written version under a CANADA section.

It doesn't show in the Toronto Globe and Mail or under searches for Colin Freeze or on the elctronic versions of the Press-Enterprise.

Might be a written press report only or esoteric enough not to have hit the search engines?

[Bonaparte]

Richard Ramirez, satanist and convicted serial killer, gets betrothed to one of his groupies in prison. The more things change, the more they stay the same...

[Cvengr]

Christianity keeps nothing secret. I sometimes wonder how far the occult actually conspires successfully in stealth. Obviously not out of the sight of God, but little reports like this one make me wonder sometimes how far reaching the threat is convoluted.

Note the woman is a lesbian with a son and son's wife (extraordinarily referred to as a daughter-in-law in some circles) living with her and her 'partner'.

[sgtbono2002]

Some people are just too crazy to be running around loose, even in Canada. this woman needs a keeper.

[Thinkin' Gal]

"Where else would you have a Jewish lesbian connect with a fundamentalist Islamist?" she asked during in an interview.

Now where was that thread re: the closing of the Canadian border?

[Cvengr]

Same woman, same cause here:

http://www.homesnotbombs.ca/dianahungerstrike.htm

Looks like it is a filler article addressed to all editors of newspapers and was picked up via a lesbian/Canadian networked link.

[thoughtomator]

Where else? San Francisco, New York, Boston, Washington DC...

[Cvengr]

Perhaps the same author of this book and outline:

WORK AND MADNESS
The Rise of Community Psychiatry

Diana Ralph
As the treatment of mental health disorders continues to expand outwards, beyond the domain of psychiatric institutions, the nature and implications of intensified psychiatric intervention is a cause for concern to all of us.

A social worker, teacher and community activist, Diana Ralph takes on contemporary community mental health systems. In a meticulously researched and highly readable work, the growth and change in the definition and treatment of mental health disorders is subjected to a concerned and scholarly scrutiny.

Ralph finds available theories, from the liberal to the Marxist to the radical antipsychiatry approaches, inadequate in accounting for these changes. Instead, she locates the ideological origins of community psychiatry within the tradition of industrial psychology, and is able to show how its operations is linked to the needs of contemporary industrial management in their efforts to defuse dissatisfaction and alienation in the workplace.

“Concise, well-written, thoroughly researched, with excellent sources.”--Choice

Diana Ralph teaches social work at the University of Regina.

Table of Contents
I. Labour and Community Psychiatry

II. Why Community Psychiatry? Four Theories

III. The Labour Theory of Community Psychiatry

IV. The Industrial Parentage of Community Psychiatry
V. The Nationalization of Industrial Psychology

VI. Community Psychiatry in a Threatened Empire
VII. Implications and Strategy

Footnotes
Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgments

[CyberAnt]

Somebody needs to send her Dr. Laura's book .. something about the "stupid things women do to mess up their lives".

[Cvengr]

N-sum, N-party game, where members change elements within and between parties at whim, attracted to other similar minded members regardless of element. An interesting dynamic begging for intervention.

[Cvengr]

Seems her father was a lawyer at the Nuremburg Trials.

[Cvengr]

Other books which she has co-authored:

Open for Business/Closed to People: Mike Harris's Ontario. Diana Ralph, Andre Regimbald & Neree St-Amand eds.
208pp Paper ISBN 1 895686 73 3 $19.95

For anyone concerned about Mike Harris's neo-conservative "Common Sense Revolution," this book is a must. It chronicles Harris's first year as premier and the emerging resistance movement. Part 1 puts the Harris "revolution" in context, exposing its underlying transnational corporate agenda and the previous right-wing U.S. and British governments on which it draws. It demonstrates how the smoke screen of populism and fiscal responsibility hides a fundamental attack on concepts of democracy and social citizenship. Part 2 spells out the profound toll which Harris's policies are taking on the people of Ontario, especially on its most vulnerable members: low-income people, women, children, workers, and ethno-cultural and francophone communities. Part 3 describes a broad range of strategies to survive and win against this neo-conservative assault.

Contents: Preface Duncan Cameron,
Introduction Diana Ralph,
Harris's First Year: Attacks and Resistance Bill Dare,
Part 1: The Harris Government in Context - The Transnational Corporate Agenda Behind the Harris Regime Tony Clarke,
Deja Vu: Thatcherism in Ontario Paul Browne,
The Ontario Branch of American Conservatism Andre Regimbald,
Deficitism and Neo-Conservatism in Ontario Michelle Weinroth,
Rights and the Right: Ending Social Citizenship in Tory Ontario Ian Morrison,
Part 2: Unmasking the Impacts - Social Assistance in the New Ontario Linda Lalonde,
"Common Sense" Assaults on Families Brigitte Kitchen, The Racist Face of "Common Sense" Jean Trickey,
The Franco-Ontarian Community Under the Harris Counter-Revolution David Welch,
Ontario Workers Take on the "Common Sense Revolution" Steve Watson,
Part 3: Strategies of Resistance - Community Strategies for Surviving and Resisting the Cuts Michele Kerisit and Neree St-Amand,
Fighting to Win John Clarke,
Days of Action: Challenging the Harris Corporate Agenda Jim Turk,
Strategies for the Post-Harris Era Diana Ralph

[Erasmus]

Long ago I dated a woman I thought was a keeper.

To my chagrin, I found out that she needed one.

[KantianBurke]

"She is also dismissive of the threat al-Qaida presents to North America. She argues the United States was complicit in the attacks that killed 3,000 of its own citizens two years ago."

I'd get banned if I were to say what I think of this "womyn."

[Mr. Jeeves]

"Where else would you have a Jewish lesbian connect with a fundamentalist Islamist?" she asked during in an interview.

"We are all friends, we who hate the Great Satan, America."