There used to be a billboard along the I-15 between Salt Lake City and Provo that said, "Get the U.S. out of the UN" for many years, and while the billboard is gone, the sentiment remains as strong as ever, and not just in Utah.

But reading such a thing in a Canadian paper? Unheard of, at least until today.

Ezra Levant writes a persuasive piece in the Calgary Sun, that Canada is perhaps just embarrassing itself by maintaining its long relationship with the UN, and should considering getting out altogether.

We know what Hezbollah terrorists thought of the UN outpost -- they thought of it as a perfect place to hide behind during their fight with the Israelis. As a Canadian soldier in the bunker wrote in an e-mail, Israel had to shoot near them for "tactical" reasons. Hezbollah was using the UN as human shields.

Sometimes the UN is even worse. In 2000, Hezbollah terrorists also kidnapped Israeli soldiers. UN video cameras caught the whole thing on tape, but UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan refused to turn the tapes over to the Israelis. A UN soldier stationed there later claimed the reason the UN didn't turn over the tape is because four other UN troops actually assisted in the kidnapping -- Indian troops, bribed by Hezbollah.

It wouldn't be the first time UN troops from dirt-poor countries do awful things while wearing blue helmets.

In Africa, UN troops have engaged in theft, rape and pedophilia. And recent Reuters footage shows a UN ambulance being used as a personnel carrier for Palestinian gunmen.

They know the Israelis will hesitate to shoot at an ambulance and take that as weakness.

Outrageously, Kofi Annan accused Israel of deliberately killing the UN troops in that south Lebanon outpost -- not saying a word about the fact it was used as a hiding place for Hezbollah. Indeed, an investigation into what went wrong on the Israeli side ought to be done. But another investigation ought to be done into Annan and his UN troops, some of whom may be nothing short of the terrorists' allies and camouflage. It's not unthinkable one of the "observers" in that bunker -- a Chinese soldier was among the four dead -- was indeed observing the battle closely.

China is Hezbollah's major arms supplier, through Iran. Most of the Hezbollah rockets are Chinese made.

Is that why the UN post was still "observing" the war even after it started?

Don't expect to get to the bottom of this, though. Annan is the same UN leader who oversaw the Oil-for-Palaces scheme that enriched Saddam Hussein -- and enriched Kofi's own son Kojo. Kofi investigated himself and his son, and -- surprise -- found nothing wrong.

Here's an idea for Harper: Pull Canada out of the UN altogether. It would save money, save Canadian lives, and probably make the world safer.

What would get a shoulder shrug here, is explosive stuff in Canada, where the UN is practically the only international stage a "middle power" can exercise a global influence. Canada was an early enthusiast on the UN, and has long contributed troops for peacekeeping missions, deploying more soldiers--125,000--than any other country in the world. Canada's involvement with UN peace-keeping missions has become part of its national identity. To suggest a reconsideration of the Canadian role, even if only in a newspaper column, signals a remarkable change.

The content of Levant's article suggests the reason--the UN has been relentless in damaging its own reputation and thus tarnishing Canada in the process. The loss of a soldier while engaged in "peace-keeping" duties on the border of Israel and Lebanon, is undoubtedly causing some reflection.

"The Toronto Blue Jays have been forced to revise a television commercial featuring Frank Thomas after the ad drew objections from the Television Bureau of Canada, a regulatory body for private broadcasters".

Canadians: Warning - graphic violence inflicted on a child

Everybody else, another Major League Baseball commercial

I would hope this is just a case of over-zealous regulators and not a mirror of the Canadian mindset.

Real Canadian beer should come in a "stubby" bottle. Drink it warm! -->

A Natural Resources Canada study has castigated Canadian beer fridges as cooling at the expense of global warming.

"People need to understand the impact of their lifestyles," says Joanna Yarrow, director of Beyond Green, a sustainable development consultancy in the UK. "Clearly the environmental implications of having a frivolous luxury like a beer fridge are not hitting home. This research helps inform people – let's hope it has an effect".

This is pretty much par for the course up north--a country so insular and parochial that its hard to take it seriously. It is said that as California goes, so goes the country. Well as Canada goes, so go the Democrats. Eventually they'll be in your beer fridges too.

The funny thing is, I don't think I ever saw a beer fridge in all my time in Canada. Most people had a case in the garage and just transfered a six pack at a time to the fridge. Electricity is expensive in Canada and disposal income in short supply (due to confiscatory taxes...)

Mark Steyn comments on his pseudo-legal problems with the Canadian Human Rights commission.

Here's my bottom line: I don't accept that free-born Canadian citizens need the permission of the Canadian state to read my columns. What's offensive is not the accusations of Dr Elmasry and his pals, but the willingness of Canada's pseudo-courts to take them seriously. So I couldn't care less about the verdict - except insofar as an acquittal would be more likely to bolster the cause of those who think it's entirely reasonable for the state to serve as editor-in-chief of privately owned magazines. As David Warren put it, the punishment is not the verdict but the process. To spend gazillions of dollars to get a win on points would do nothing for the cause of freedom of speech: It would signal to newspaper editors and book publishers and store owners that it's more trouble than it's worth publishing and printing and distributing and displaying anything on this subject, and so it would contribute to the shriveling of freedom in Canada.

This is a political prosecution and it should be fought politically. The "plaintiffs" certainly understand that, ever since the day they went in to see Ken Whyte and demanded money from Maclean's. I want the constitutionality of this process overturned, so that Canadians are free to reach the same judgments about my writing as Americans and Britons and Australians and it stands or falls in the marketplace of ideas. The notion that a Norwegian imam can make a statement in Norway but if a Canadian magazine quotes that statement in Canada it's a "hate crime" should be deeply shaming to all Canadians.

I concur completely that this has to be fought politically, but as someone who lived in Canada a good many years (all my children are dual citizens...). The call to arms does however, require some qualification, some understanding of what works and doesn't work with the Canadian public and its political institutions.

Understand two things up front:

Liberal media culture characterizes the life of an exotic dancer as safe, empowering and renumerative. It seems like Canadian women aren't buying the line.

Facing a shortage of foreign exotic dancers, a group representing 53 of Ontario's strip club owners is turning to immigration consultants to find a loophole in the rules governing foreign workers.

The Adult Entertainment Association of Canada is looking for alternative, legal, ways to hire foreign-born strippers and dancers. One way might be to use foreign student visas since foreign students can now work for 20 hours a week in any job, said the group's executive director Tim Labrinos.

In 2004, then-minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada Judy Sgro resigned after extending the visa of a Romanian exotic dancer who had worked for her election campaign.

In the wake of public outcry, immigration officials have been looking at each individual application and visa officers abroad are under orders to screen out women they think might be victims of trafficking, don't meet health criteria or don't have a way home after their visas expire.

This has led to a reduction in the number of work permits and extensions granted to foreign strippers from 423 in 2004 to just 17 in 2006.

Up to 98 per cent of foreign exotic dancers who apply for visas get turned down, said Lambrinos.

Canadian girls probably don't find the prospect of being ogled by losers they went to high-school with all that appealling.

H/T The Corner