This letter from today's Star is a fitting response to all of the snarling and foaming coming from the mouth of newly-installed Conservative leader Andrew Scheer over the apology and compensation given to Omar Khadr by the Canadian government.
Re: Ottawa apologizes for violating Khadr’s rights, July 8
I read in today’s Star that Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer says Canadians are “shocked” by the Khadr settlement, which included an apology from the government and compensation of $10.5 million.
Scheer does not speak for me. This settlement was long overdue and much deserved. I, and most other Canadians, applaud it.
What shocked me was that the U.S. could assert the right to imprison in Guantanamo a child who was essentially a prisoner of war.
What shocked me was that successive Canadian governments, both Liberal and Conservative, failed to repatriate from Guantanamo that Canadian child citizen. Is Canadian citizenship of so little value that our government will refuse to go to the boards for its citizens?
What shocked me was that Canadian CSIS officials took advantage of the travesty of justice in Guantanamo and participated in those interrogations. But the Supreme Court of Canada has already ruled that this violated Khadr’s Charter rights.
What shocks me now is the insensitivity, inhumanity and complete disregard for the law shown by Scheer in a crass effort to make political hay.
Shame on you, Andrew Scheer!
Jack Coop, Toronto
This is a very useful aid to revealing the fracture in our society, Lorne. I fear that, as a people, we are migrating into two hostile camps each deeply suspicious of the other. Hard to see how any good can possibly come of that.
ReplyDeleteI think a great deal about the nasty polarization that we see today, Mound. Part I blame on social media, which seems to encourage the kind of anonymous sniping that is currently endemic, and that in turn seems to be empower and encourage others, like our political 'leaders,' to exploit them for their own selfish purposes. That being said, I know that we can't turn back the clock, but I still believe that the voices of the fringe are magnified far beyond their real numbers in Canada, and should be treated as such. In other words, and maybe I am wrong here, they should be ignored as much as possible.
DeleteNothing has changed with the reform/alliance party, posing as conservatives Lorne. This is the house that Harper built and it was built to last.
ReplyDeleteJust close your eyes when Scheer speaks and his words sound like Harpers. Scheer is nothing but a baby face Harper!
A very apt description, Pamela. If people truly looked into the motives of people like Scheer and Harper, they would realize that division and dissension are what they really embrace. The concept of uniting people seems foreign to them.
DeleteLike neo-progressive neo-liberals don't indulge in political opportunism. LOL. Reminds me of a line:
ReplyDelete"Herein did the Shape of Evil dip his hand, and prepare to lay the mark of baptism upon their foreheads, that they might be partakers of the mystery of sin, more conscious of the secret guilt of others, both in deed and thought, than they could now be of their own."
Whatever you say about Scheer, you say about a majority of Canadians. And Scheer only needs 40% of them to get absolute corrupt power in 2019.
Suffice it to say, Junior is not a "great communicator." (Which is also how he messed up electoral reform letting the fanatics and fake-news journalists destroy his initiative and make him look like a fool.)
It seems to me he's under the impression he can flash his Pearly Whites and get himself out of any kind of trouble. We'll see.
"Lo! there ye stand, my children," said the figure, in a deep and solemn tone, almost sad, with its despairing awfulness, as if his once angelic nature could yet mourn for our miserable race. "Depending upon one another's hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue were not all a dream! Now are ye undeceived! Evil is the nature of [hu]mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome, again, my children, to the communion of your race!" – Nathaniel Hawthorne
"Whatever you say about Scheer, you say about a majority of Canadians. And Scheer only needs 40% of them to get absolute corrupt power in 2019."
DeleteI will respond only to the above quote from your comments, Anon, and take some comfort from the fact that a 40% vote does not represent 40% of Canadians, only 40% of those chose to vote.
.. Power & Politics had a guy on last night - Lane Morris. Joe Warmington 'wrote' an article in the Sun. All main media echoed Adrew Scheer, one actually interviewed Peter MacKay. Jenni Byrne got her twisted knickers into the fray and the other usual suspects blared and bleated their umbrage. I can't wait for Joe Oliver.
ReplyDeleteJason Kenney of course right away got mounted on his high twitter horse. Blatchford et al .. screetch screetch caw caw blither n blast.. 'a slap in the face to our Canadian Forces' is de rigeur part of such hysterical rhetoric.. and thus you end up with facebook & twitter reverberations - that one medic saw the other medic killed by a grenade thrown by Khadr.
I suppose its neccessary for shrill partisans nervous of the Sacred Harper Legacy to hurl themselves over the battlements and go after the infidels, defilers of all that is christian, good .. and I guess other stuff that Andrew Permasmirk Scheer stands for.
Sandy Garrissino's recent article unfortunately punches massive holes in the partisan press nonsense, the precious parliamentarians of the rump reform alliance of Stephen Harper and Peter MacKay also take massive body and head shots. But that the problem with facts eh.. versus fictions or fantasies or fables.
When the facts force you into a corner and start pounding.. why you just go glib and lie. First to yourself & then to anyone you suspect doubts you. And if your real job is collecting or massaging votes or donor dollars, then one must go to 'situational ethics' mode.
The problem with Khadr is that he's a well established boogieman, a truly smelly and tantalysing old red herring who has proved to be a tried n true whipping boy for the USA & Canada. Why he was a victory! In Afghanistan! They got their man! A real life terrorist captured! Another successful mission! And so they kept the beast in the dark & grew the fable. It was perfect for Harper & MacKay. The Tom Flanagan school for wingnut political creeps worked it..
But now the legal toilet flushes 10 million or so to Khadr.. who dammit all, got out of Dodge & survived! Shot to rags after F15's Warthogs Apache attack choppers, artillery and ground forces pounded the living daylights out of that compound! And along with the dough.. comes a factual rehash of how the afterscam all went down! Names are named, some rush to be on tv and deny, other rush to cover up and deny. Hello Stephen Harper and Peter MacKay and all your complicits.. including Andrew Scheer, Rona, John boy Baird, Ray Novak ! And every other CPC or media wank or crank who joined the pile on. Yes there is a 'secret' payoff.. but the payoff joke is not really on Trudeau.. its on the ten years preceding his government ! !
As I watch all of the vitriol being spewed forth with such zeal for political purposes, Sal, I am once more reminded of how debased our political system has become, frequently aided and abetted by the MSM. The only antidote, and it is a far from perfect one, is to continue to focus on the facts. In Omar Khadr's case, they are many and, of course, ignored by the rabid right.
DeleteThere some excellent articles in today's Star that focus on those facts, and if time permits, later today I would like to post on them.