I'm sure you've all seen the pictures of this nightmare day on Parliament Hill, this criminal assault on our democracy.
So all I have to say tonight is this:
(1) To the crazy fanatics who killed a young soldier today and another one in Quebec the other day: you and your kind will not intimidate us.
And we will remember Cpl. Nathan Cirillo and Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent...
Long after we have forgotten their cowardly killers.
(2) To the Con regime: you said you would change Canada beyond recognition and you certainly have. Turned us into a more violent war-like country, full of kooks and religious fanatics and more guns than you can count.
(3) I don't agree with everything Glenn Greenwald wrote in this column after the first attack in Quebec. But some things cannot be denied.
It is always stunning when a country that has brought violence and military force to numerous countries acts shocked and bewildered when someone brings a tiny fraction of that violence back to that country. Regardless of one’s views on the justifiability of Canada’s lengthy military actions, it’s not the slightest bit surprising or difficult to understand why people who identify with those on the other end of Canadian bombs and bullets would decide to attack the military responsible for that violence.
That’s the nature of war. A country doesn’t get to run around for years wallowing in war glory, invading, rendering and bombing others, without the risk of having violence brought back to it. Rather than being baffling or shocking, that reaction is completely natural and predictable. The only surprising thing about any of it is that it doesn’t happen more often.
For there can be no justifying those senseless acts of violence, but when we try to explain how it could happen in a country like Canada, that's where we must start.
(4) The police may have acted swiftly and bravely today, but they are still going to have to explain this one:
Federal sources have identified the suspected shooter as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, a man in his early 30s who was known to Canadian authorities. Sources told The Globe and Mail that he was recently designated a “high-risk traveller” by the Canadian government and that his passport had been seized – the same circumstances surrounding the case of Martin Rouleau-Couture, the Quebecker who was shot Monday after running down two Canadian Forces soldiers with his car.
And why a man who had also had his passport seized wasn't more closely monitored.
(5) Let nobody forget that just one day after the first murderous assault, Stephen Harper released this attack ad to try to play politics with tragedy...
And try to make us believe that only he can keep us safe...
When in fact the evidence is that his pathetic posturing for crass political reasons has only made our lives more DANGEROUS.
And he too should understand that like those violent crazies, he will not intimidate us either. Or turn this country into a police state.
Or scare decent Canadians into voting for him. When no leader has done more to harm our democracy.
And this is still true.
This country does not need to change its democratic traditions or surrender to fear. It just needs a new government.
And we will not be safe, and we will not be Canada.
Until the day he is defeated...
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35 comments:
Standing on their bodies just to make an anti-Harper point.
You are one sick person without a shred of dignity. Even on this day you just couldn't rise above your typical filth.
Harper is so despicable. As I write this, he is practicing his primetime speech to Canadians on how he'll keep us safe from the whackjobs reacting to him whipping out his CF18's. Thanks for bringing the war home steve, you idiot.
anon 7:25pm - It's Harper who will stand on their bodies - if he can ever get around to starting his much delayed "address to the nation". Geez ... you were right, Harper, we are not recognizing our Canada after what you are doing to it.
People may attack the Government after their most vital rights are ceaselessly denied at every turn, perhaps like those who had a child taken by CPS. Not all people that would act against the government is a fanatic. How many tragedies and lies can Canadians take. If Montreal Simon had a child taken and tortured by the system perhaps it would not seem such a fanatical thing. To act as if there is not ever good enough reasons for a war is to deny the depths of evil and harm that provokes.
Well, that speech was a pile of crap. He said nothing ... nothing. Plus, his hair didn't look quite right ... and the flags were wrinkled, for pete's sake!
We will not be safe in this country until Harper is no longer in charge.
Canadian politicians are partly responsible for the deaths of the soldiers. Con Harper and others supporting him have been openly provoking good and bad people for a long time. They say all is safe yet a great part of what caused the soldiers deaths is STILL in parliament.
Anon 8:06pm - "Justifiable war" is a rare thing ... very, very rare.
There are thousands of unseen wars inside the borders of Canada between the system and citizens. They are often wars never seen and never heard. The war afar diverts away from that.
After watching Harper make political hay out of the deaths of these soldiers, your comments are even more sickening than his...the Sun called, their idiot is missing...
You do not seem to get the point in my comment. It does not need much passion and wisdom to know that war between nations are almost never justifiable but wars that systems set against their citizens is another story ...
I think you do not understand my response
hi anon....get a grip yourself. I owe it to the dead to ask those hard questions. I'd tell you the truth will set us free. But being a filthy Con I doubt you'd understand that....
No disrespected intended but we are not playing ping pong. There is not any reasoning that accompanies your claim. I now feel I must spell it out that wars of nations are not often justifiable yet the U.S. has the right to bear arms for a reason.
Soldier Shot on Parliament Hill, Multiple Shooters May Be Involved
http://thetyee.ca/News/2014/10/22/Parliament-Hill-Attack/
[snip]
Doug •
The conservative PM has been taking some of the most strident and one sided geopolitical and economic stands in Canadian history.
On the actions of Russia.
On the actions of Israel.
On ISIS.
On climate change and forcing tar sands oil down the throats of the world.
On social justice issues.
All while acting in the most undemocratic fashion ever seen here...and somehow this isn't going to have an effect?
This is exactly what Harper has been waiting and hoping for, his chance to enact "war" measures acts to fully assume power in Canada. What we've seen before is going to be nothing compared to what's coming now.
If a person is put on a "watch list", especially if he has had his passport seized, he should be watched 24/7 by the RCMP/CSIS, whatever the cost.
Let's say it takes about 10 people (eg. RCMP/CSIS) to watch 24/7 each of the 90 alleged ISIS sympathizers who are in Canada eg. surveillance (both in the field and electronic)
Here's an OVER-ESTIMATION of cost......10 people X 90 alleged ISIS sympathizers = 900 X $100,000 (estimated salary per person per year) = $90 million a year. That's a pittance to spend given the amount of the entire federal budget.
$90 million is small potatoes compared to the cost of sending 6 fighter jets + 600 personnel based in Kuwait for 6 months!
Nonsense.
In Mr. Vickers, this tragedy has brought out the best of Canada.
In you Simon, it has brought out the absolute worst. I really should thank you for again, and again proving beyond all doubt just how far gone the left really is. Even Mulcair, and Trudeau managed to put aside the hatchet for a day, which is the absolute least they could do. Even Mulcair said that this attack was meant to get us to hate, but that we would not do it. I don't often agree with Mulcair, but there are times when he speaks soundly, and correctly.
But no, not you... Rather than emulate the best of Canada, you've chosen the absolute worst. You've managed to drag the standard of decency and good taste even lower than the brute who arranged a firefight in the Center Block; at the very least, he probably had some idea that what he was doing was wrong. You can't see it, but you're just like him.
It is a terrible thing which happened at Parliament today. The death of the solider was horrible and unjustified. This is what big mouth P.M. "lets go to war and kill them" harper has wrought. This is harper's big moment. Now harper has his election issue. Betcha the boy gets to do the eulogies at the funerals.
Canada was not asked to participate in the middle east, but no harper wanted to be one of the "big boys" and he volunteered 6 jets. So now we have two dead Canadians on top of all the other dead Canadians from fighting a war which got no one anything, well the arms companies got a lot of money.
I am not surprised this happened. I expected it, from the minute P.M. "lets go to war and kill them" harper "volunteered" 6 Canadian jets. We might want to ask, why didn't this happen in England, Australia, U.S.A., France, Saudi Arabia? Because Canada was the one who "volunteered". While P.M. "lets go to war and kill them" harper was flapping his gums about how we had to kill people in the middle east, who had never done anything to us here, he was cutting military budgets, the RCMP and CISIS budgets so he could slay his other big dragon: the deficit.
England has already gone through its terrorist "warm up". They had the IRA. France, they had to deal with Algerian independence fighters. They are ready. Australia is just tougher. The U.S.A. got with the agenda after 911. Canada had harper and his continual cuts to everything in this country so he would have goodies to hand out in an up coming election, his version of an erection.
If you are going to go to war with a bunch of terrorists you have to be prepared for them to bring it to you also. harper didn't think about that. We are lucky there was only one person attacking with a gun in Ottawa and only one vehicle attacking.
David is very correct with his figures and his comments. It was all about the money with harper and his herd. Now we have another 2 dead solders and harper has his election issue.
I still feel very safe in this country because there is a better chance of being killed by a drunk or distracted driver than a "terrorist". P.M. "lets go to war and kill them" harper will use this as an excuse to pass laws which will further supress our Canadian democracy. For me, the most frightening thing/person in this whole thing is harper and his herd. If harper hadn't "volunteered" those 6 Canadian jets, I'm sure the extremists wouldn't have bothered with Canada.
hi anon 10:15....save your pious sermons for you and your depraved leader. The day I will listen to anything a Con has to say about the decent way to behave is the day I'll die or the world will end. Canada is the same as it was the day after this attack, as it was the day before. Your thuggish leader would have us believe it has changed but it hasn't. It is possible to mourn the dead and ask hard questions about that tragedy, and that's exactly what I intend to do. And as for comparing me to that terrorist you know where you can shove that one you dumb bestial Con hog...
hi anon...I despise the Con government with every bone in my body, but I don't approve of violence, when we can remove them with a ballot. I also agree that there are some "good" wars, like the Second World war to defend ourselves from the Nazi beasts. But most wars are bullshit and only make things worse....
hi anon....you're right, war is being used as a distraction by the Con regime. Instead of declaring war on hunger and poverty they would waste millions killing people....
hi David...I agree. With the huge police forces we now have, we should be able to keep a closer eye on those who would like to join ISIS, and make sure they neither get there, and play their crazy games here. But this is a government that panders to religious fanatics of all stripes, so we can't expect anything from them...
What is sometimes called Dies Irae is approaching - and it appears to me that the day grows very long indeed. I should thank you again - your tarnished and deeply flawed example is a perfect model for what anyone shouldn't do, in anticipation of that day. You have been warned, but you will not listen. You'd prefer to drown in your own hatred. Perhaps He will give you exactly what you desire. It's not too late, but perhaps soon it will be.
.. stay the course .. Simon. You don't need to defend or explain your feelings to those you allow to comment freely. Yet another Canadian is dead, killed by a deranged individual with a gun. The other day it was a deranged & cowardly attack with a car. The pronouncements of Stephen Harper.. on 'the facts of the matter' as he is so fond of saying carry little weight or meaning. I don't recall reading he remained at the scene, Parliament.. in any leadership role.. instead he disappeared 'was whisked away' as Manbridge intoned, to an undisclosed location as the PMO speechwriters got busy
At the risk of committing sociology and trying to understand actions, there are thousands of young men wandering around the middle east unemployed and hopeless and conditioned by brutality and destruction, loss and war visited on them by some western nations. More war isn't going to stop them. It will just make them more angry. AND wandering around Canada under the present regime are lots of unemployed and hopeless young men. Their jobs are being taken by temporary foreign workers and their salaries are being lowered by government actions and they can't seem to find the imaginary training schemes. Young men need positive things to do. Anyone who has raised a teen aged boy knows that.
Did Mr. Harper stand there leading his country in the face of danger. No, he ran and hid. What would Churchill have done? Churchill was a war correspondent so he encountered real war. One envisions Mr. Harper running like a rabbit away from action.
Stephen Harper, our own version of Dick Head Cheney. Maybe he will go hunting with Rob Ford and/or brother Doug and shoot them in the face, The victim of Dead Eye Dick not only didn't sue Cheney, but actually apologized to the asshole for his face being in the way of Dick's shotgun pellets.
The undisclosed location turned out to be 24 Sussex Drive. I still want to know whether it was red wine, cola, or something else in Harper's glass during his RCMP briefing (and photo op) with Bob Paulson
http://rt.com/news/198408-canada-ottawa-harper-wine/
In fairness to Harper, he was barricaded in with his Con caucus in their meeting room, just as Mulcair was barricaded in with his NDP caucus in their meeting room. And I assume the same with Trudeau.
hi salamander....I see that they hid Harper in a broom closet. What more could we ask for ? And as for our Con friend, you're right I probably shouldn't waste my time trying to reason with them. Life is too short and I'm lazy... ;)
hi anon....yup, correct on all counts. When you're contemptuous of root causes, they do have a nasty tendency to come back and bite you...
hi UU4077....Yes, it wasn't the finest performance Great Leader has ever given. I understand that it came from an "undisclosed location" which probably means a nuclear bomb shelter about a mile underground.
So no wonder the hair was off, and he looked like he was suffering from shell shock...
hi kootcoot....Did he really apologize to Cheney? Well it's not like he could shoot him or anything. With all his bionic parts the chairman is practically indestructible... ;)
"Did he really apologize to Cheney?"
As the expert on Russia, from studying it from her porch would say........You Betcha, and if I'm not mistaken the guy who got shot in the face was a lawyer.
Dont forget to mention his speech in the HoC yesterday in which at the end he mentions his omnibus bill for building up CSIS etc., as if daring the opposition to oppose any of what is contained in it at such a time. This reminds me so much of how the US Patriot Act (written before 9/11) was passed in the US.
There is a BIG odor around the happenings this week. It is coming from the PMO
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