Tora Dojo
7721 Newman H8N 1X7 La Salle, QC, Canada

Congratulations to Audrey Pouplard, and Quincy B. who both achieved Purple belt, ready to take on the 3 Tekki kata; and Akilan V. who is now 1st Kyu Brown belt, and ready to prep for his Shodan exam in the coming year, hopefully with Maya Makonnen, who has been ready for some time! GANBERU!

SHARING SPONSORED BY https://www.jtgsystems.com _____________________________________________ The Toronto Sun reports that not enough that Paul Bernardo tortu...red, raped and murdered their daughters more than 25 years ago. Now the serial killer and serial rapist stands ready to inflict new pain on the Mahaffy and French families with his scheduled appearance Wednesday morning in his first bid toward freedom before a parole board. They will have to come face to face with the man who has haunted their dreams for more than a quarter of a century. And unfortunately for his victims, this parole hearing is destined to be the first of many, many attempts in the years ahead as the sadistic killer can re-apply as often as he wishes. Bernardo served notice as far back as 2015 that he wanted to seek day parole in Toronto. But after the families would steel their emotions and make their travel arrangements, he would always cancel. We’ve had six false alarms, their lawyer Tim Danson said in a previous interview. It’s just gut-wrenching for the families. And there’s certainly no accommodation for their schedule. After Doug and Donna French planned and paid for a spring vacation, Danson had asked that a parole hearing not be scheduled during their 10 days away. The best I could get was ‘Thank you, we will take your request under consideration,’ he said in exasperation. They just pay lip service to victims. Once again, they have written their victim impact statements and booked their hotel rooms near the Bath Institution. After so many false starts, Bernardo seems ready to carry through with his cruel attempt though as the notice says from the parole board, the offenders have the option of waiving their right to a hearing or postponing the hearing even up to the last minute. Now 54, Bernardo was sentenced to life with no chance of parole for 25 years for raping and murdering teens Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, crimes he would try to pin on his then wife, Karla Homolka. His lawyer insists he’s changed. The fact is, over the last 25 years he has experienced personal growth, he has at times seemed to blame others, seemed to be burdened down by his own guilt, but I expect that he will take full responsibility, express remorse, I can only say he appears to be sincere in that, Fergus O’Connor told reporters earlier this month. He’s as horrified as you and I are at what he did. O’Connor previewed his parole board argument outside the Napanee courthouse on Oct. 5 after the Crown dropped a homemade weapon charge against Bernardo. That’s at least one prison charge we now know about. We’re not allowed to know if there are others. The families have been denied access to Bernardo’s institutional records; They’ve been told by the Correctional Service of Canada that it will violate his privacy rights. It’s nonsense, Danson said. The public has a full right to know if he wants to be released into society. Still, Bernardo thinks he deserves a chance a chance he never gave to the young girls he sadistically tortured and murdered. It’s now all about whether the master manipulator can convince the parole board that he’s no longer the monster he used to be. You bet we have the right to know. And the Parole Board better ensure that Bernado is locked away for life or there will be rioting in the streets. But with all things considered these days, he will likely be off to a Healing Lodge. Submit - Neil .T _____________________________________________ SHARING SPONSORED BY https://www.jtgsystems.com _______________________________________________

Sparring can be done with social distancing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQpQmNhya14

Everyday for 10 days I’ll post a picture from my Martial arts life without explanation. I will then nominate someone to take the challenge. Keep this going Help Martial arts to grow I nominate Daniel Liboiron

In accord with the government's strategy, Tora Dojo will be closed for May. Hopefully, we can stop the spread of COVID-19 in its tracks.

A Happy Birthday to Alain Faucher Sensei! 73 and still going strong! Very inspirational!

December Exam will be Friday the 20th. 5 - 6pm warmup; exam starts at 6. Study hard, do NOT miss class!

In the snowstorm, drive DEFENSIVELY as you would spar against a strong opponent - assume trouble can come at any second, from any direction. Driving slowly = advancing cautiously; sashi ashi feeling!

Alain Faucher Sensei class last night at Quebec Hoitsugan; you can tell the quality of your Sensei when a class makes you feel like a white belt all over again with "ohhhhhhh!" biomechanics moments...

Another excellent biomechanics class with Alain Faucher Sensei tonight! Good principles for every Shotokan Karateka!

As the summer gets well underway, it's important to remember you should keep up your training. Taking a break = turning off the heat; the water will STOP boiling!

A good competition today for Team Canada selection. If you can compete with no contact, it is easy to ramp up to more contact, but someone who does nothing but hit hard will not easily be able to pull their punches. Something to practice.

I attended my first Trump event sometime in the summer of 2016 (I don’t remember exactly when and I’m too lazy to google.). The future president was going to be... featured in a live town hall event on braniac Sean Hannity’s nightly Fox show and it was being filmed not far from where I live, so I decided to go see the phenomena for myself, try to understand it. The first thing I noticed, entering the venue, was the crowd. They were, at least as far as I saw, literally 100% white, the only exception being one visibly displeased on-duty African-American cop, but they were not really what I expected. I went expecting a much more rowdy, aggressive crowd, angrier. These people were abnormally subdued, it seemed to me, almost timid. A lot of them were obviously from outlying, rural areas and they seemed to feel themselves out of place. The event was being held in a beautiful, renovated 19th century theatre, definitely what you would think of as fancy, if you picture the word fancy in your mind, and a lot of the crowd appeared to be impressed by their surroundings, a little uncomfortable. Sean Hannity came out first and threw a football around for a awhile. The crowd was old, and seated they seemed even more vulnerable, more defenseless. To my left, a couple rows down, I could see an elderly couple. The man was clutching some sort a T-shirt with a message on it, a message he would stand up to show Donald Trump later, very proudly. His wife doted and it seemed clear he was disabled somehow, likely cognitively. I don’t think he was the only one there with the same issue. That’s when any resentment or anger about these people really drained from me. There were a lot of ways it could’ve gone, I thought, but I really wasn’t expecting to feel that level of sympathy for these people. Then Trump came out. As the show began they applauded and hooted and hollered at every appropriate place, nothing out of the ordinary, I imagine it was a fairly normal crowd. At some point they broke into the first successful chant of the day LOCK HER UP. It was strange, watching so many people chant to imprison a political opponent. Then a feeble chant about taking some money from Hillary or Obama or someone for some perceived malappropriation or as weregild for setting up untoward email servers or some bullshit, I can’t remember clearly. I don’t remember how many little chants got started and died. Then someone started BUILD THE WALL. It seemed loud to me (and I’ve seen Motorhead live), but I think that must’ve been intensity more than actual volume, and this time it just kept building. The next President smiled and said a word or two of encouragement, the chant got louder and louder, until finally he said Who’s going to build it? and the crowd roared back MEXICO. It was one of the most intense Oh shit. moments I’ve ever had. I’m almost certain I said Oh shit. I know I thought it, because that’s when I finally got it. That’s when I understood what Trump was all about. The faces had changed. There was a particular expression, as they chanted and laughed, it was a certain flavor of delight. They were transported, giddy. They were giddy, they were reveling in it. For the rest of the evening, the crowd remained visibly buzzed on this high. Leaving the venue, some of the formerly well-mannered crowd began shouting at the few protesters lined up outside. One young guy took off his shirt and began plowing into them, throwing sarcastic excuse me’s back over his shoulder. I thought about the look on the faces in that crowd a lot, since then. I tried to pinpoint what it was exactly, tried to find it other places, on other people, in other situations. Look at the video of the Catholic school kids at the March for Life rally in Washington. Forget about Smirky McDoucheface, ignore the Native American elder. Look at the kids in the background, laughing, gleeful. That’s the look. It’s transgression. That’s the power they’re feeling, the thrill the Trump crowds feel. Transgression. You’ve felt it, the first time you did something your parents told you not to do. You felt it trying weed for the first time, maybe, maybe having sex. But this is more. This is like being a hippy in 1967 and realizing sex was nothing to be ashamed of and then doing it in the road. Transgression is one thing, the thrill of open, public transgression is something different. The thrill of being yourself, finally, after repressing so many thoughts, feelings, attributes, and doing it in front of everyone, in front of the world. I’ve felt it more than once in my life, most people probably have, in some minor way, at least. Coming out as gay or gender queer is a great example, even just telling someone what you really think of them, I guess, sometimes. It’s an amazing, empowering feeling. It’s empowering when the transgression is in the service of something good and decent and positive, and it’s just as thrilling and empowering what it is in the service of something malign. Maybe more so. The Trump phenomena isn’t about capitalism or economic insecurity or financial inequality or the opioid crisis. Of course it’s racism, but it’s more than that. It’s deeper, more primal. It’s about transgressing social norms, and much more than that, transgressing their own moral sense, shaking it off like a straitjacket and proceeding unencumbered. Look at the joy, the delight, those kids are inhabiting for those moments. Those kids knew they could get away with diminishing the elder with his drum, he’s not wearing the proper collar for a priest, he’s hitting his weird drum, chanting some weird shit, and not even the right weird shit. They are reveling in the realization that there’s a human being, an adult, that they don’t have to respect. a person the adults around them, the chaperones, the priests, have given them tacit, preemptive permission to degrade, diminish, and best of all, an older person, a person other people view with particular respect. I saw that look at age 15, on the face of a friend making fun of a disabled man in McDonald’s (I wanted to laugh with him, I wanted a friend so badly, but I barely mustered a chuckle, and I’ve remembered it and my shame for it ever since.) I saw it a year ago or so, on the faces of the young men who marched on Charlottesville and left blood and bodies in their wake. I saw it a few months ago when a man slowed and stooped over a homeless person sitting on the sidewalk to make fun of them for the amusement of his two friends. I shouted after him, told him I saw it, to knock it the fuck off. He said he knew it was wrong, I knew he’d do it again. It’s the look people doing something wrong to someone and realizing there is no one there to stop them. The look of someone doing something nasty and not having to care at all. I saw it again, a couple days ago, on the faces of a group of kids surrounding a man much older than them as he performed a religious ceremony for them, mocking him, howling racist chants, and gleefully videotaping the entire thing for mom and dad to laugh at later. And I saw exactly the same look on the faces of hundreds of ecstatic adults, shouting with a future president about building a wall and forcing other people to pay for it. Now why do you think a bunch of rural and exurban midwesterners give a shit about Mexicans 1000 miles away? They don’t. You really think they’re worried about their fucking jobs being stolen? Give me a fucking break. Every time that crowd of well-fed Midwesterners in the most wealthy nation in the history of the world chanted about that wall, they were saying Fuck you. That’s why they do it. Fuck you to 50 years of cultural change, of being told their feelings are wrong, their instincts are wrong. That they may have to start making room in their way of life for some people and some ideas they’re not used to, of constantly fighting against the toxic conditioning they’ve been inculcated with. That wall isn’t about keeping Mexicans out, The wall is isn’t even about the wall. The wall is about chanting build the wall, so every fucking BLM, #METOO, LGBTQ activist their kid dates can hear it, feel it. Fuck you, SJW. BUILD THE WALL. BUILD THE WALL. BUILD THE WALL. All for that gut-level thrill of shocking convention, angering the uninitiated. Transgressing. I see so many well-intentioned people try to argue with them, reason with them, debate them, and it’s so sad and funny and useless. Debate? Reason? There is no reasoning with this, this isn’t about fucking capitalism, or theory, or wealth inequality. This isn’t about statistical research regarding the effect of immigrants on low skilled labor. It’s not even about hate, really, it’s about the joy of hating, of hate built up for decades, passed onto children, touched by a match and exploding out through years of social progress and justice and understanding. There is no reason, no debate, no argument that can match the thrill of realizing that you were right all along and millions of other people agree with you. You can’t argue with the buzz they’re getting from telling everyone they hate to fuck off. You can’t legislate hate like this out of existence, it’s ridiculous to try and the price is far, far too high. (And, by the way, I will personally fight you tooth and nail every inch of the way, every book burning, speech restricting one of you.) You can’t beat it out of them. Again, it won’t work, the psychic price for that is too dear, it’s just fucking wrong, and you look pretty awful talking about it, by the way. A couple years ago, we all had the pleasure of watching a large swath of the populist, ethnonationalist right demolish their coffeemakers because the company that produced them came out as anti-pedoophilia. Remember that? And now they just got through throwing away their razors because the company that produced them is anti-rape. Why do you think that is? Who does shit like that? Take a look at that video again. This time look at the elder beating his drum, looking into the eyes of the smirking dick in his MAGA cap. Watch that kid’s face. Yeah, he’s smirking, he’s being a douche, but once or twice, you can see it, it crosses his mind. He’s wrong. Somewhere in there he knows he’s wrong. He knows it. That’s why people blow up coffeemakers and throw away perfectly good razors. They know it,, too. They know things weren’t always like this. They know they didn’t always vote for pedophiles and sexual assailants. They didn’t put babies in cages, or talk about bombing caravans of fleeing refugees. They didn’t hate like this. So don’t tell me about beating up on people, putting 16-year-olds in jail, and and don’t bother trying to debate them, reason with them. Watch that video again. Watch that kid flinch, watch what that elder does. There’s only one answer to hate this virulent, untethered. Shame. That’s what that elder did. He shamed that kid, and it almost worked. That song almost got through, he almost hit that nugget of humanity, just for a second. That's what you do when you're confronted with hate like that. You don't punch people and you don’t call the cops, you walk up to the asshole, stand in front of him, stare him right in the eye, and without laying a finger on him, you sing your song. Just sing your song. That’s how you deal with hate. Keep looking them right in the eye and keep singing, motherfuckers.

Shinnen akemashite omedetô gozaimasu

And this is how you teach history.... Testudo! 0:35 "Pullo, get back in formation you drunken fool"!

Very sad news. Reynald Leboeuf Sensei, a pioneer of Karate in Quebec, has passed away today. He was a true master of Karate, having done the teacher training in Japan at the behest of Nakayama Sensei. He was a guest instructor at Tora Dojo a few times, and both Chuck Sensei and Mike Sensei have been training with him at his dojo, Quebec Hoitsugan. His loss cannot be measured.

Excellent class with Alain Faucher Todokai. Kinesthesiology adds so much to Karate! Some changes to Chinte make it very powerful. I had learned it is nothing "like a dance" with Koishi Sensei over 20 years ago...

Excellent class (yet again!) on the biomechanics of basics this morning with Alain Faucher at Quebec Hoitsugan...

Good exam today. As Phil Alleyne once said, Remember that no matter the result, it's more important that you just DO Karate!

Excellent kata / bunkai oyo class this morning with Reynald Sensei!

When bad news comes, be like the waves. Whether they move to or fro; all is the same to you.

Excellent Kata class this morning with Reynald Sensei!

Absolutely excellent class this morning with Alain Faucher Sensei. He started in Karate 5 years before I was born. It shows. I learned things this morning I haven't seen in 28 years of training. One might wonder why.

Looking forward to a class with Alain Faucher Sensei tomorrow! Packing that camera and spare batteries!

Mike-San and I only ones at Hoitsugan on Friday - so we did ALL the Kata in 1 hr! Including Ji'in, and Shirai Sensei 64 technique sparring kat! Who says Fri 13th is unlucky?

I taught a lesson today that was entirely silent. Sometimes a change in perception like that can let you see or understand things in a way you didn't before. Thank you, Stanley Kubrick's 2001.

Koishi Sensei in Oct. 1995. Demonstrating Kanku Dai, just before Tate Nukite. I really liked the way he moves in Karate; I follow that method and teach it to this day.

News that Bruce Lee might have died of heat exhaustion. Apparently, they turned off the aircon in the booth while he was dubbing his movie. He had a headache when he died, as well as brain swelling, which are symptoms of extreme overheating. I'll keep my regular sign-off: stay cool!