Harpoon Blows Smoke About Syria's Pre-Uprising "Diversity"

The Toronto Star's resident snake oil salesman (one of 'em, anyway) tries to get away with a whopper--how Syria was a paradise of "diversity" until its recent ruckus. A commenter responds with a succinct yet delightfully descriptive "Balllooony," and the Wiki entry for "Human Rights in Syria" reveals the truth--that Syria was as far away from being a utopia of inclusiveness as you can get:

Human rights in Syria have been described as "poor".^[1] Since 1963, emergency rule has remained in effect which gives security forces sweeping powers of arrest and detention.^[2]
The country is governed by a one-party state without free elections.^[2] The authorities harass and imprison human rights activists and other critics of the government.^[3] Freedom of expression, association and assembly are strictly controlled.^[2][3] Women and ethnic minorities face discrimination.^[2][3] According Human Rights Watch, President Bashar al-Assad failed to improve Syria’s human rights record in the first 10 years of his rule,^[4] and by the eleventh (2011), Syria's human rights situation had become one of the worst in the world.^[5] According to Amnesty International, the government may be guilty of crimes against humanity based on "witness accounts of deaths in custody, torture and arbitrary detention," during the crackdown against the 2011 uprising.^[6]..

Ooops! Looks like Harpoon's been caught, er, massaging the truth for a change.