Monkey Fun

“We wish to inform new immigrant arrivals that the way of life which they abandoned when they left their countries of origin cannot be recreated here,” a declaration on the Canadian village of Herouxville’s website reads. “We consider it completely outside norms to… kill women by stoning them in public, burning them alive, burning them with acid, circumcising them etc.” (Those Canadians and their crazy laws.)

The annoucement also points out that women are allowed to drive in our neighbor to the north, as well as dance, vote and own their own homes, and it bans Sikh children from carrying ceremonial daggers to school (even though Canada’s Supreme Court has ruled that they can). Naturally, Canadian Muslims are offended. They can take some cold comfort, perhaps, in the knowledge that there are plenty of other crazy laws on the books in Canada (besides those banning the ritual murder of women), like


* Comic books which depict illegal act are themselves illegal.

* You may not pay for a fifty-cent item with only pennies.

* In Alberta, if you are released from prison, it is required that you are given a handgun with bullets and a horse, so you can ride out of town. (This one might be a little outdated.)

* It’s illegal to climb trees.