Jailed in Cuba, is this wrong?
A Mascouche man is in a jam: he went to Cuba where he ended up killing a fellow Canadian in a boating mishap. Cuba jailed him, let him out and then recently re‑tried and re‑convicted him and sentenced him to four years.
All the pieces I’ve seen have led strongly with the idea that Toufik Benhamiche is unjustly stuck in Cuba. Julius Grey is representing him and says the Canadian government should be acting to exonerate him. But while I’ve seen cases where a citizen gets stuck in a bad place for no reason – Zahra Kazemi comes to mind – the fact remains Benhamiche mishandled a boat and a woman died. Ingrid Peritz says the man has an apartment and is not in custody while filing a second appeal.
Maybe Benhamiche should be allowed to do his time here in Canada, but it’s not as if he’s the innocent victim of severe injustice.
EmilyG 10:05 on 2018-12-27 Permalink
Eh, I have a hard time taking Julius Grey seriously since he defended someone who wanted to wear a pasta strainer on their head for an official photo.
Chris 13:46 on 2018-12-27 Permalink
What’s wrong with wearing a colander? Aren’t we free in this country to wear whatever funny religious hats we want to? As long as the face is visible and the person identifiable (i.e. the purpose of identification cards), then how does it harm you or others? Who are you to judge the sincerity of a person’s innermost convictions? You’re not a pastafariaphobe are you?
(I say this tongue in cheek of course, making a parallel with what someone would reply if you had said ‘niqab’ instead of ‘pasta strainer’.)
But really, the colander only seems silly to you because it’s so new. Give it time. Scientology is only a few decades old, and they don’t have to pay property taxes. JWs are just over a century old, and they are taken as a proper religion. It’s only because they are so old that Islam and Christianity aren’t laughed at in the same way.
Also, a good lawyer will take cases even when he doesn’t personally agree with the client, because some really do believe in the right to representation/defense. They also believe in paycheques I imagine. 🙂
Bill Binns 14:41 on 2018-12-27 Permalink
I don’t like Julius Grey but I don’t remember why. Now that Emily has let us know he defended the rights of a citizen to wear the religious signifier of their choice I will have to have another look at the man.
I truly wish I could be one of the brave souls that shows up at the DMV with their colander. Alas, my wife doesn’t ask me for much but she really wants me to stay out of the news.
Kate 16:05 on 2018-12-27 Permalink
Anyone who thinks the colander business makes some sort of profound gotcha about religion is essentially missing the whole point. Sorry, Chris.
Chris 00:32 on 2018-12-28 Permalink
What ‘whole point’ is that?
Kate 10:16 on 2018-12-28 Permalink
Chris, you think that a joke religion with a nonsense premise reduces all world religions to that level. You’re forgetting the massive presence of religion as part of world culture, literature and art, as well as human psychology and community.
EmilyG 12:52 on 2018-12-28 Permalink
The colander thing isn’t religious, but making fun of religion.
But I know I’ve had this argument before, and I don’t feel like going there again.
Bill Binns 13:29 on 2018-12-28 Permalink
Please explain the difference between a “joke religion” and any religions you feel are not jokes. Please attempt to do so without using the word “established”. Every religion has to start somewhere. Think a religion that describes the afterlife as having “stripper factories” and “beer volcanoes is too ridiculous to be taken seriously? Let me tell you a story about a pregnant virgin and her improbably naive husband. We could also talk about the many millions of adults who, in 2018 will insist that the sun sets into a muddy pond every night, that ants can talk and that 50 year old dudes marrying 9 year old girls is just fine. We haven’t even gotten to Zenu yet. ALL religions are jokes but it’s too hurtful to say out loud for some reason.
The colander thing is a lot of trouble to go through to “mock religion” especially considering that mocking is easily accomplished with a lot less effort then fighting all the way to the supreme court.
This is about people exercising their rights that are supposed to be equally applied to all. Not much different from sitting down at a lunch counter where you are not wanted and insisting to be served.
Kate 20:15 on 2018-12-28 Permalink
Bill Binns, you feel hard done by because the homeless get help and the religious get breaks (minor breaks, like not being ticketed when they park near a synagogue on Saturday, but breaks nonetheless).
Can’t you see that, even for a nonbeliever, the big religions have been a growth medium for art, music, architecture and literature, even while carrying the seeds of corruption? You can’t see that a proposition like Pastafarianism overlooks how these systems give millions, if not billions of people some external community structure and internal emotional structure that allows them to face their own life and mortality?
Studies have shown that religious people are often happier than non. Yes, it’s a kind of placebo effect. But we’re frail and life is short, would you really deny this to so many?
Chris 22:24 on 2018-12-28 Permalink
Kate, no, I don’t think that “a joke religion with a nonsense premise _reduces_ all world religions to that level”. There is no causal link. The other religions were on ‘that level’ before FSM was even concocted. They all have a ‘nonsense premise’.
I’m also not “forgetting the massive presence of religion as part of world culture, literature and art, as well as human psychology.” I acknowledge that. What of it? It’s not mutually exclusive to being based on a ‘nonsense premise’.
But I’m not trying to debate religion in general…
Mormonism was started by Joseph Smith, a literal fraudster. Scientology was invented by a science fiction writer. Despite this history, they all have genuine followers, that truly believe. They did not at first. FSM could well have some true believers now, and more in the future. You can’t know what someone truly believes in their heart. Even if only a single human on Earth genuinely believes in the FSM, why deny them wearing a colander if other ‘funny hats’ are allowed? Because you doubt the sincerity of their belief? Because you personally believe it silly? Because the other hats have longer history? Why?
Kate 10:45 on 2018-12-29 Permalink
Chris, the FSM was launched purely as satire and to make a point about religious nonsense. It’s a point, but it’s a thin point and I continue to maintain it misses 90% of the purpose of religion in most cases.
You do make a case about Mormonism, based on a really bad 19th-century pastiche of the King James bible, and Scientology, but even the latter was not entirely launched as a satire, which Pastafarianism was.
Chris 14:30 on 2018-12-29 Permalink
FSM was launched by an activist trying to keep “intelligent design” out of science class.
Scientology wasn’t a satire at all. It was started as a tax evasion scheme.
Anyway, I’d still love to understand EmilyG’s original viewpoint: why shouldn’t someone be allowed to wear a colander in an official photo? The best I can understand from this thread is: ‘official’ religion is a valid reason for exemption from regular rules, but unofficial religions are not, and altogether different reasons are not either. i.e. Wearing a baseball cap ‘because fashion’ shouldn’t get you an exemption. Wearing a colander ‘because FSM’ shouldn’t get you an exemption. But wearing a hijab ‘because Allah’ should get you an exemption. Is that about right? I’d genuinely like to understand, because it seems illogical to me. I can understand accepting all 3, and rejecting all 3, but the line drawn in the middle is baffling.
EmilyG 16:15 on 2018-12-29 Permalink
Because actual religions don’t exist just to make fun of other religions? Unlike Pastafarianism and wearing a colander on your head?
I don’t think religion should be exempt from criticism or satire – I just think that the colander thing is ridiculous.
Hmm, didn’t mean to sidetrack the comments section of this blog post for something not really related to the original post. Sorry, Kate.
Chris 19:12 on 2018-12-29 Permalink
So it’s merely because “the colander thing is ridiculous” that one ought not be allowed to wear one in photo id? Many other people think the hijab is ridiculous, is that likewise reason enough to disallow it?
You know, one can simultaneously think something ridiculous and support the right of others to be ridiculous. This, I suspect, is where Julius Grey is coming from.
Kate 10:18 on 2018-12-30 Permalink
Chris, we have to trust intention. A person’s motive for insisting on wearing a colander is not the same as for wearing a hijab or a kippa. You can argue till you turn blue that you actually believe in the FSM and have to wear a colander and I am never going to believe you.
Kevin 05:51 on 2018-12-31 Permalink
Chris
“Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law:”
There is your legal starting point.