At last someone in Canada’s mainstream media has drawn attention to the frightening and growing phenomenon of neo-Nazi groups in Europe.

Although in much of Europe Muslims are the main neo-Nazi scapegoats, in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria – and especially in Hungary – the extremists focus their torment and hate mostly on the Roma.

The neo-Nazis harass and intimidate the Roma, and worse. There is a long list of violent acts that have continued unabated over the past five or six years.

What aroused the Canadian media out of its 'dogmatic slumbers' on this issue was the Greek election, where the neo-Nazis got themselves into Parliament for the first time.

Without meaning to, a representative of the Hungarian Government confessed to a Canadian Parliamentary Committee, on Wednesday, that his government has had a great deal of trouble controlling extreme right "militias" that persecute and intimidate the Hungarian Roma people.

The Hungarian official is Imre Helyes, head of the consular section at the Hungarian Embassy in Ottawa, and he was testifying before the Commons Immigration Committee that is considering the new refugee reform, Bill C-31.

Mr. Helyes made that remarkable admission in response to a question from a Conservative member who asked if there was "discrimination against the Roma in Hungary."

From time to time, Hill Dispatches will scan the horizon to see what is happening now and what is coming soon. As the Conservatives try to re-make Canada in their own image, it is taking many individual stories to  form the big, and sometimes quite scary, story.

Job losses

The Public Service Alliance of Canada has started to publish what the government calls "workforce adjustment" information.

The union is reporting on the numbers of members in different job categories who have received notices saying they could lose their jobs. That number is now over 12,000 in total, with the largest number in the National Capital Region.

Cuts to Parks Canada of 1,689 jobs have been well publicized.

But there are many others