Guy Incognito Praises Toronto Star ... and some other things

Does anyone else get a whiff of fish from this? It's awfully well-written, and awfully comprehensive in its identification and praise of so many liberal Canadian staples to be the work of someone so recently immigrated, and someone, likely, whose cultural context is radically different from our own. I mean: "I extend my thanks to my English teachers ... They not only taught me English but also taught me that Canada has three territories and 10 provinces, about Pierre Trudeau, Lester Pearson and Tommy Douglas, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and even customs like the potluck meal"? Or: "[I extend my thanks to] the CBC, with its documentaries, The National, its films and even Hockey Night in Canada. Thank you for showing me the diversity that Canada has to offer"?

Sounds an awful lot like propaganda to me. Right down to the declaration of faith: "in the future."

There's no by-line, but I guess that doesn't really mean anything. You get the impression that one refugee is as good as another to the Star's editorial staff, so I could be wrong ...

"Karim Abbud Abdul-Aziz is finished that piece, Mr. Star."

"Good, good ... Er, what did you say that name was again?"

"Karim Abbud Abdul-Aziz."

"Bit long, what?"

"Erm--"

"Tell you what, replace Karim Abbud Abdul-Aziz with Immigrant. See how that looks."

"Sir?"

"That way it'll seem as though they all wrote it. Get some serious consensus going there."

"Um ..."

"Did he put anything in about gay marriage? How great it is, I mean."

"No, sir."

"Health care?"

"No."

"Damn. Oh well. Tell you what: call him a Refugee, then. We'll save the Immigrant for a ripe piece on gay marriage and health care."

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ADDENDUM (3:45 PM)
For the sake of verisimilitude, the Star decided at some point this afternoon to append a name to this piece. (No doubt because they saw it so utterly lambasted here!) Ricardo Artunduaga, now, is the great mind behind this masterpiece of free thinking. It's a very culturally diverse sounding name too ... Two birds with one stone, fellers. Nice. Now, I wonder what kind of hindsight it will take to get "Ricardo Artunduaga" to change the title and the content?