Quebec MNA Khadir defends picture showing dead Charest

[MikeEdwards]

Quebec MNA Khadir defends picture showing dead Charest
Brian Daly, QMI Agency
First posted: Tuesday, June 12, 2012 11:33 AM EDT

4 MINUTE VIDEO

MONTREAL — Ultra-left wing politician Amir Khadir is on the defensive over a picture on his kitchen table that shows him holding a gun and standing over Premier Jean Charest's dead body.

The separatist Quebec Solidaire Leader and his wife both defended the image, currently being used as evidence against their daughter as she fights accusations of masterminding student violence.

The image is a doctored version of an 1830 painting by French artist Eugene Delacroix depicting the French Revolution of that year.

Khadir's face is superimposed on the body of a revolutionary holding a musket. Charest's face appears on the body of one of several dead men lying at Khadir's feet.

Police snapped photos of the doctored painting last week as they raided Khadir's home and arrested his daughter, Yalda Machouf Khadir, 19.

She spent five days in jail before a judge released her on $12,000 bail Tuesday.

Met by reporters at the Montreal courthouse, the defendant's mother dismissed the picture as a satirical work by a local band.

"It's (an) album cover," said Nima Machouf, adding, "go check it on the Internet, it will make you laugh, too."

Charest had no comment Tuesday, but two of his ministers said such images in the home of a sitting MNA are no laughing matter.

Seniors Minister Marguerite Blais said the drawing was "in bad taste" while Transport Minister Lise Theriault had harsh words for Amir Khadir.

"I think it's a lack of judgment, a lack of respect towards the national assembly, towards the premier and towards the role of parliamentarian," Theriault told reporters in Quebec City. "It's frankly very cheap."

Among the charges laid against Khadir's daughter is intimidation against a legislature member after officers seized anti-capitalist literature and documents showing how to make paint bombs.

At a fiery news conference on Tuesday, Khadir defended his decision to display the picture in his home. He suggested that the arrest of his daughter was part of a plot to silence Charest's critics.

"Why is Quebec Solidaire being pushed around and (intimidated)?" Khadir asked.

"(Our) determination and ... support for the student movement will not be undermined whether they arrest me, whether they arrest my daughter."

Quebec City police rounded up the outspoken politician two weeks ago for his part in a protest against Bill-78, the special law aimed at student groups and others that encourage civil disobedience.

His daughter is accused in the April ransacking of Education Minister Line Beauchamp's office, as well as acts of vandalism at the University of Montreal during a student protest.

She's also accused of attacking Chantal Poirier, a photographer who works for Le Journal de Montreal, QMI Agency's flagship French newspaper.

Yalda Machouf-Khadir was among a group of six people arrested last week in a series of co-ordinated smoke-bomb attacks that shut down the Montreal subway system on May 10.


http://www.torontosun.com/2012/06/12/qu ... ay-attacks

[catonist]

Here is the picture.

I think it's a bit of a stretch to take this as an actual incitement to kill Charest. I think it's just meant to show Khadir vanquishing his opponents.

[fourhorses]

Poor taste perhaps, but police involvement in the matter ...

way over the top

[styky]

"It's (an) album cover," said Nima Machouf, adding, "go check it on the Internet, it will make you laugh, too."

And that's what's wrong in this world today. That someone in a position of power could think that a depiction of a colleague dead is "funny"

[catonist]

"It's (an) album cover," said Nima Machouf, adding, "go check it on the Internet, it will make you laugh, too."

And that's what's wrong in this world today. That someone in a position of power could think that a depiction of a colleague dead is "funny"

Well, I wouldn't be surprised if some high-ranking Republicans found this funny.

Granted, it doesn't technically show Obama dead, but still. The results of the implied action aren't hard to imagine.

[Lee Enfield]

[size=200]
Among the charges laid against Khadir's daughter is intimidation against a legislature member after officers seized anti-capitalist literature and documents showing how to make paint bombs.

I have never heard of anti-capitalist literature seized in a police raid before .

[shiva]

"It's (an) album cover," said Nima Machouf, adding, "go check it on the Internet, it will make you laugh, too."

And that's what's wrong in this world today. That someone in a position of power could think that a depiction of a colleague dead is "funny"

Well, I wouldn't be surprised if some high-ranking Republicans found this funny.

Granted, it doesn't technically show Obama dead, but still. The results of the implied action aren't hard to imagine.

Yeah, that and AFAIK Reagan was never accused of vandalism, breaking into a Minister's office, or attacking a photographer (although perchance at times he might have felt like it) so maybe Ms Khadir's great ha, ha joke has a more sinister flavour than Time's, but of course, someone else is likely to blame for that too.

[catonist]

"It's (an) album cover," said Nima Machouf, adding, "go check it on the Internet, it will make you laugh, too."

And that's what's wrong in this world today. That someone in a position of power could think that a depiction of a colleague dead is "funny"

Well, I wouldn't be surprised if some high-ranking Republicans found this funny.

Granted, it doesn't technically show Obama dead, but still. The results of the implied action aren't hard to imagine.

Yeah, that and AFAIK Reagan was never accused of vandalism, breaking into a Minister's office, or attacking a photographer (although perchance at times he might have felt like it) so maybe Ms Khadir's great ha, ha joke has a more sinister flavour than Time's, but of course, someone else is likely to blame for that too.

Point of correction. That cover is a parody of a Time cover, called Why Obama Hearts Reagan, not an actual cover.

Anyway, I would venture that the perpetrators of the subway smoke-bombing would have come up with the idea whether or not they had ever seen that particular piece of fairly pedestrian agitprop. I guess I can understand why the police would photograph it, as part of their investigation, but if they're hoping to get this entered in as evidence, I'd say they must have a pretty weak case otherwise.

[shiva]

"It's (an) album cover," said Nima Machouf, adding, "go check it on the Internet, it will make you laugh, too."

And that's what's wrong in this world today. That someone in a position of power could think that a depiction of a colleague dead is "funny"

Well, I wouldn't be surprised if some high-ranking Republicans found this funny.

Granted, it doesn't technically show Obama dead, but still. The results of the implied action aren't hard to imagine.

Yeah, that and AFAIK Reagan was never accused of vandalism, breaking into a Minister's office, or attacking a photographer (although perchance at times he might have felt like it) so maybe Ms Khadir's great ha, ha joke has a more sinister flavour than Time's, but of course, someone else is likely to blame for that too.

Point of correction. That cover is a parody of a Time cover, called Why Obama Hearts Reagan, not an actual cover.

Anyway, I would venture that the perpetrators of the subway smoke-bombing would have come up with the idea whether or not they had ever seen that particular piece of fairly pedestrian agitprop. I guess I can understand why the police would photograph it, as part of their investigation, but if they're hoping to get this entered in as evidence, I'd say they must have a pretty weak case otherwise.

Don't get me wrong. I agree on that point but Ms Khadir and her daddy aren't doing themselves any favours since they've both demonstrated a propensity for not giving a rat's a** about anyone's rights.

[RedDog]

How far does liability go though? Are this site and its principals accountable for the item even being linked and described here if it's deemed to be "hate"? Where does it end? These are the questions of the age we evidently live in now.