Posts tagged conservative policy
“”Politics as war is exactly what former Harper strategist Tom Flanagan has long advocated. A Globe piece by Mr. Flanagan before the 2011 election was actually titled “An election is war by other means.” Mr. Flanagan also chose to compare the 2008 campaign to ancient wars in which Rome, the Conservatives, defeated Carthage, the Liberals, and “razed the city to the ground and sowed salt in the fields so nothing would grow there again”.
As Alan Whitehorn of the Royal Military College of Canada wrote: “This suggests a paradigm not of civil rivalry between fellow citizens of the same state, but all-out extended war to destroy and obliterate the opponent. This kind of malevolent vision and hostile tone seems antithetical to the democratic spirit, not to mention peace and stability.”
..precisely the conservative approach to bipartisan politics.
Be very afraid: Stephen Harper is inventing a new Canada - excellent but depressing post by Gerald Caplan.
“ Canada has an obligation under our law to take refugee claims seriously, to weigh them in a judicious manner, and to insist that allegations of “terrorism” and “human trafficking” be proven. We also need to work with our international friends and the UN to understand better why these boats are travelling, how they are being organised, and why people feel they should take them.”
It is a pity Vic Toews didn’t mention the Komagata Maru and the SS St Louis, and why we’re not going to repeat those atrocities. To turn away a boat that’s been on the high seas for over 90 days would be unconscionable. It would also be illegal.
What, then, of the “moral hazard”, the argument that if we let one boat it will be followed by countless more ? These are not exactly cruise ships. Not everyone on them will be found to be a refugee. But if the Sri Lankan government says I’m a threat to their national security I’m less inclined to take seriously their blanket conclusions about who’s on the boat and why they’re there.
Send Them Back an Old, and Awful, Refrain
Rae really has his moments, this is one of them.
[major hat-tip to uzairm for pointing out this excellent response to the stance and remarks made by the Canadian Gov. concerning all the controversy surrounding the MV Sun Sea and it’s Tamil asylum-seekers]
“ Ottawa “will not hesitate to strengthen the laws” in order to tackle the “trend” of would-be refugees arriving in Canada via people-smuggling ships, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday afternoon.”
“Let me be clear. We are a land of refuge, but at the same time, I think Canadians are pretty concerned when a whole boat of people comes — not through any normal application process, not through any normal arrival channel — and just simply lands,” Harper said at an event in Mississauga, Ont.
Harper mulls law change to prevent boats of asylum-seekers
…right. Here’s what Harper really meant by that non-sense: “Let me be clear. We are a land of refuge, but at the same time [i’m trying to establish a military state here, and these people are a potential threat (lol jks i know they’re probably not) so you guys (the Canadian media) keep playing along and making this a huge issue and these sorry folks will be back on the water in no time].”
Tories Take Aim at Employment Equity
zuky:
I WILL END YOU, JASON KENNEY
Hiring should be decided on merit, not ethnicity, Mr. Kenney said.
“We can continue to achieve greater diversity in the public sector without prohibiting people from applying for jobs on the grounds of their race or ethnicity,” Mr. Kenney said. “It’s a very simple principle and I think it’s something the vast majority of Canadians would appreciate.”
Apparently today is my day for reblogging dorianisms on the subject of affirmative action…
I’m learning about Canadian racism, the particular and pecular version of white supremacism which is manifest here in the north. It doesn’t have that aggressive edge of lynch-mentality fury you find in the US, but it certainly builds on the same misleading discourse of white victimization and white normativity and social/historical erasure disguised as colorblindness. I realize this sounds like I’m stereotyping Canadians but it really is kind of a more polite version of the same racist politics I’m accustomed to in the US: the conservatives playing the white victimhood card and attacking affirmative action as discrimination against whites; the liberals meekly defending affirmative action and accusing the conservatives of pandering to their white base before an election; and no genuine discussion of racism or colonialism or the architecture of inequality.
I mean, listen to this pro-white soundbite from Treasury Board President Stockwell Day: “While we support diversity in the public service, we want to ensure that no Canadian is barred from opportunities in the public service based on race or ethnicity.” Wow, that is some mild-mannered reasonable-sounding racism! He supports diversity, to an extent! What he’s really saying is: Now I’m not a racist, but yo white people! let’s not get carried away with all this politically correct equality stuff and end up giving away the family farm to the darkies!
Why have i only just discovered Zuky now?
“ ‘When you think purely about response times, there is nothing else that can get across the country as fast as a fighter jet.’”
—Mercedes Stephenson, military analyst
Canada to spend $9B on F-35 fighter jets - CBC News
This is a joke. What does this analyst foresee in the future of Canadian affairs that will require a F-35 to fly across the country? This isn’t about overseeing domestic affairs, it’s about international “peace-making” missions that Canada has, in recent years, become shamefully recognizable for. You know the peace-keeping missions that we are leading in places like Afghanistan? where our dedicated soldiers are protecting the well-being of..well, oil pipelines? You know, that kind of peace-keeping.
gah, and the price tag? 9 billion, expected to reach as much as 18 billion once the government signs maintenance contracts. Ridiculous. Why are these Conservative crooks still in power? Honestly Canada, what are we turning into.
Conservatives say no to summit security probe.
Tory MP Dave MacKenzie, former police chief in Woodstock, Ont., urged the committee to “reject calls to promote the agenda of the violent mob … who set fire to police cars and damaged property during the G20 in Toronto.”
That might have been a reasonable stance to take, if not for the fact the vast majority of people out and about that weekend were regular people who weren’t torching police cars. Actually, even then it doesn’t make any sense: how is investigating police abuses promoting anything?
Opposition MPs said the federal government’s real reason was far more cynical, arguing it desperately wants to avoid explaining why security cost well over $1 billion for the G8 and G20 summits and yet black-clad protesters still did millions of dollars damage in downtown Toronto while police stood by and watched.
You think?
