For Brad Trost and Maurice Vellacott, two MPs who are disgrace to Saskatchewan, Politics’n’Poetry gives you this:
conservative party
Iraq war resister faces deportation from Canada
It saddens me how heartless our nation has become under the leadership of the Harper Conservatives. And it’s not that the Liberals were a whole lot better, but dammit, a few of them had hearts. And, I like to think a few still do have hearts and that all Opposition MPs in Ottawa will do their damnedest to ensure that Corey Glass is not deported to the fascist and war-mongering USA.
Thanks to World Report for bringing this to my attention.
Iraq war resister faces deportation from Canada
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TORONTO, May 21 /CNW/ – US Iraq war resister Corey Glass was told today
that his application to stay in Canada has been rejected and he now faces
deportation.Glass, 25, came to Canada in August 2006 after serving in Iraq as a
Military Intelligence Sergeant.“What I saw in Iraq convinced me that the war is illegal and immoral. I
could not in good conscience continue to take part in it,” said Glass. “I came
here because Canada did not join the Iraq War.“Also, I knew Canada had welcomed many Americans during the Vietnam War,”
It is estimated that several hundred Iraq War resisters are currently in
Canada, many of them living underground.“Corey Glass would be the first Iraq War resister to be deported from
Canada. He would face imprisonment and severe penalties in the US,” said Lee
Zaslofsky, coordinator of the War Resisters Support Campaign and a Vietnam War
resister. “This goes against Canada’s tradition of welcoming Americans who
disagree with policies like slavery and the Vietnam War.”On December 6, 2007, the Standing Committee on Citizenship and
Immigration called on the Canadian Government to “immediately implement a
program to allow conscientious objectors and their immediate family members to
apply for permanent resident status and remain in Canada; and the government
should immediately cease any removal or deportation actions against such
individuals.”“The Government should implement that recommendation immediately,” said
author Lawrence Hill. “Corey Glass had the courage to listen to his
conscience. He is working hard to build a new life in this country. He should
be allowed to stay.”“We must not forget that the invasion of Iraq was a war justified only by
lies, greed and stupidity for which permission was not sought nor granted to
the Bush administration by the United Nations,” said Alexandre Trudeau, son of
Pierre Elliott Trudeau and director of the documentary film Embedded In
Baghdad.“This outlaw war has ravaged the Iraqi landscape, destroyed tens of
thousands of lives and sorely sapped the American treasury all while filling
the coffers of profiteers,” he said.“Those Americans who served in Iraq, and have come to Canada to avoid
being pressed into further participation in the indignities of the American
occupation there, are brave men and women of principle who should be given a
chance to become landed in Canada. Like many Vietnam draft dodgers before
them, their heightened sense of morality and truth can only be a benefit to
our nation.”A community forum on the plight of US war resisters in Canada will be
held tonight, May 21, at 7 p.m. at Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Avenue (at St.
George) in Toronto.The event will be moderated by CBC radio host Andy Barrie and will
feature US war resisters Joshua Key, Jeremy Hinzman, Corey Glass and others.For further information: Lee Zaslofsky, (416) 598-1222; Michelle
Robidoux, (416) 856-5008
Cons Attack Women in Science and Engineering
I guess there must be too many women in Science and Technology because the Gettin’ Old Guvmint O’Canada has axed more women’s programmes.
Thanks to Artemis at One Woman Army for bringing it to my attention.
Regressive Cons
Over here you’ll find Law Prof Lorraine Weinrib’s piece, reprinted with permission from the Law Times. It’s an article about Harper and his Justice Minister addressing the Charter’s 25th anniversary. Here’s a sample from it:
Conservatives cling to the old Bill of Rights
Stephen Harper overlooks courts’ role in interpreting Charter.
Dateline: Tuesday, May 15, 2007
by Lorraine Weinrib
Monday, 14 May 2007 The 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Charter, in mid-April, presented the rare opportunity for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson to join with many others in expressing their views of the Charter, its place in our constitutional order, and the effect it has had on Canada in its first quarter century.
Neither took advantage of invitations to the formal academic and professional events held to mark the occasion, where they might have presented an expansive account of their views. Their limited comments in the House of Commons in question period are therefore all we have. These statements, despite their brevity, reveal quite a lot.
2475ad.jpgBoth Harper and Nicholson offered partisan responses to questions seeking a comment marking the occasion. Nicholson, for example, stressed that the Conservative party “has an enviable record with respect to human rights in our country” and needed no “lessons from anybody in this Parliament on the subject of human rights.”
He cited the Diefenbaker Bill of Rights and the extension of the franchise by Conservative governments to women and Aboriginal Canadians, indeed the full extension of the franchise, as elements of that “proud history.”
As to his own government’s accomplishments, he noted the federal victims’ ombudsman, stable funding for legal aid, and action on the Chinese head tax. He concluded by noting, “We did things that the Liberal party was never able to get done.”
Harper also took a partisan stance. He stressed the difference between his government, which actually promoted rights, and the Liberal record, which he described as catering to lawyers’ concerns and pocketbooks.
Like his minister of justice, the prime minister referred to the Diefenbaker Bill of Rights as the legislated beginning of Canadian human rights protection. He then cited a long list of his own government’s accomplishments and summed up in these words: “The government is acting on rights, unlike the record of that government which did not get the job done.”
His examples were noteworthy: protecting the rights of women and children from acts of criminality, extending the right to vote for the Senate, fixing the historic injustice of the Chinese head tax, the Air India inquiry, the residential schools agreement, and signing on to the United Nations declaration on the rights of the disabled.
These statements tell us a lot about the government’s official position on the Charter.
First and foremost, according to Harper and Nicholson, the Charter fulfils itself through legislation and government action, not through Charter litigation and judicial rulings. Many of the comments described were made in response to criticism of the government’s cancellation of the Court Challenges Program. In that context, the emphasis on this government’s aversion to lawyers’ concerns and lawyers’ work is significant.
Second, Harper and Nicholson consider the Charter’s subject matter to be “human rights” broadly conceived, rather than “constitutional rights” as embodied in its particular guarantees, principles and institutional arrangements….
From the Standing Committee on the Status of Women
Here’s one little tidbit from The Impacts of Funding and Program Changes at Status of Women Canada
In a brief submitted to the Committee, members of the External Committee on the Policy Research Fund stated that the program had excellent value for money with only five staff members. They believed that the elimination of the Fund would increase “the risk of seeing new policies being based on ’yesterday’s ideas.’ In their briefs, many organizations, including the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW), described the importance of the Policy Research Fund for research on women’s issues. The Alliance believed that eliminating the Fund would produce “a loss in terms of historical understanding of women’s equality movements, research and advocacy collaborations in our country.”
But the Harperites don’t care about that, do they?
The “New” Government of Canada is nothing but sexist old boys with old sexist ideas. They really need to be retired!
On Getting Re-elected
Well, PMS is certainly desperate for that Majority, isn’t he? Remember all the boo-boos we at P’n’P pointed out along the way? Well, he went ahead and made them despite public outcry, declaring them to be right for Canadians, blah-blah-blah. But when the polls started looking a little poorly for him and his band of Reform-a-Tories, he started shapeshifting.
Now look at him! He’s gone green (and included monies for E85 cars in the budget because the plant is close to Flaherty’s riding)! He’s dumping tonnes of money into the provinces (attempting to buy votes in Ontario and Quebec with transfer payments)! He’s making noise about investing in childcare (but it’s really a cut because he has yet to replace all the money he’s taken from it). He’s re-investing money in women (but won’t put equality back into the mandate of Status of Women Canada). I could go on.
But I won’t because there’s enough here to show that all he’s doing is all for show. He is a cold-hearted and calculating man who is desperate to be re-elected. If we allow him his wish, we will lose all he has promised and more. North American Union will proceed very quickly, mark my words, and we will be one step closer to being a fully fascist state.
ACJC Condemns Creation of pro-Israel Caucus
From the Inbox:
For immediate dissemination February 6, 2006 ACJC Condemns Creation of pro-Israel Caucus The Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians, a national umbrella organization of progressive Jewish groups and individuals, has condemned the creation of a parliamentary "Israel Allies Caucus" by the Harper Conservative government. The establishment of the new pro-Israel lobby will be officially announced in Ottawa on Tuesday in the presence of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canadian and Israeli parliamentarians, including MK Benny Elon (National Union-National Religious Party) MK Orit Noked (Labor) and MK Ran Cohen (Meretz), as well as members of the Canadian-Israel Friendship League. "This move is just another sign of the Harper government¹s complete contempt for the Canadian public," said Jason Kunin. "It is not in the interest of most Canadians, and certainly not in the interest of most Jews." Indeed, a recent Globe and Mail Strategic Counsel poll, showed an overwhelming majority of Canadians 77 percent favoured a neutral foreign policy in the Middle East, and a plurality of Canadians 45 percent disagreed with the Harper government¹s favouring of Israel. In Québec, 61 percent disagreed with Canada¹s recent foreign policy tilt towards Israel. Jewish interests both in Israel and Canada are best served by peace and the Canadian government throws away its opportunity to be part of any peace process when it portrays itself as a pro-Israel lobbyist on the international scene." "The creation of this caucus will only further discredit Canada in the eyes of the international community," Jason Kunin insists. "It means condoning a brutal forty-year occupation of Palestinian civilians. It means condoning the illegal wall that is imprisoning them in enclosed ghettos. It means condoning the seizure of their land and water, the strangulation of their economy, and the daily military assaults against innocent civilians and makes life in the occupied territories a living hell." The ACJC believes it speaks for most Canadians, and for most Jews, in calling for a return to diplomacy and peacemaking. Many of the Israeli policies that would be uncritically supported by the creation of this new pro-Israel caucus are not even supported by many Israelis. The ACJC calls for the Canadian government to demand the dismantling of Israel¹s illegal "security wall," the end to military occupation of Palestinian lands, and a just resolution of the Palestinian refugee crisis. "Canada should support international law, period" said Jason Kunin. * * * * Media contacts Jason Kunin at jkunin@rogers.com or Abraham Weizfeld (Administrative Secretary) at 514.284.66.42 / 514.833.29.74 cellular ------------------------------------------------------------------------ J'utilise la version gratuite de SPAMfighter pour utilisateurs privés. 45736 e-mails spam ont été bloqués jusqu'à maintenant. Les utilisateurs payant n'ont pas ce message dans leurs e-mails. Essayez SPAMfighter gratuitement maintenant! __._,_.___ Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians L¹Alliance de Canadiens juifs concernés ACJC ACJC2006@yahoo.ca ACJC2006-subscribe@yahoogroups.com http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ACJC2006 News/nouvelles &discussion List/e: JUNITY-CANADA-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
