Stephen Harper and the Foul Flames of Bigotry

In his more than nine years in power Stephen Harper has done many foul and disgusting things. But he has never stooped lower than he has now.

And he has never been more dangerous.

So I'm glad to see that some in the MSM are finally waking up to what he is trying to do.

And criticizing the way he is so blatantly and so shamelessly fanning the flames of ignorance and bigotry.

On Feb. 10, the town council in Shawinigan, a Quebec city of 50,000 people in the woods north of Trois-Rivières, voted to reject a zoning application for a mosque.

Two days later, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in Victoriaville, a city of 40,000 in the woods south of Trois-Rivières. Mr. Harper announced he will appeal a federal-court decision that found that Pakistani-Canadian Zunera Ishaq has the right to take her citizenship oath while wearing a niqab, a veil that some Muslim women wear as a sign of their faith.

Criticizing him for pandering to ignorant bigots like André Drouin.

Mr. Harper’s comments and Shawinigan’s decision were applauded by André Drouin, a municipal councillor from Hérouxville, a village of 1,340 near Shawinigan. In 2007, Mr. Drouin drafted a code of conduct that outlawed stoning and bride burning, neither of which had ever been reported in the area.

And starting to worry about where the crazed and increasingly desperate Stephen Harper might lead us...



Mr. Harper’s back is to the wall. If he loses the next election, or even fails to win it convincingly, his career is likely over. Since oil prices collapsed, the economy is not the political winner it once was, leaving fear as his best issue. Things could get ugly between now and the election.

And all I can say is it's about time. Because no other leader in modern Canadian history has ever stooped so low. 

And as Don Lenihan points out, Harper's comments about the niqab ruling, at such a time and in such a place, was no accident or coincidence.

Harper’s comment was crudely calculated to push some hot buttons, especially in Quebec, by singling out these Muslims and labeling them as un-Canadian. Similarly, his jihadist-like rhetoric about the terrorists having declared war on us, hating our way of life or wanting to kill us has no deeper point than to create a climate of fear and mistrust among Canadians, as though we had suddenly been transported back into the Middle Ages.

It was an act of calculated bigotry.

And his criminally irresponsible behaviour is both outrageous and dangerous.

This is not only worrying, it is dangerous. Demagoguery and xenophobia play right into the hands of the terrorists. They raise tensions between Canadians, ghettoize Muslims and help radicalize youth. In short, they not only provide the oxygen terrorists need to carry out their business; they begin to extend the terrorists’ reach into our own communities.

As is the behaviour of all the other Cons like Jason Kenney, Peter MacKay, and Chris Alexander who are all doing their part to whip up xenophobia for crass political purposes.



For can you imagine what this country might be left looking like should their criminal strategy succeed?

And Lenihan is right, the opposition parties should be working together to nip that  bigotry in the bud, before its poison spreads further.

By working together as a team, the opposition leaders would motivate Canadians to inform themselves, exchange views with one another and, ultimately, help them see Harper’s demagoguery for what it is.

But of course even that won't be enough.

For those who would threaten the social fabric of this country so blatantly and so shamelessly, must not only be removed from power as soon as is humanly possible, and by all legal means necessary.

They must be held accountable for their crimes against Canada.

And be made to answer for what they have done...




And our mission couldn't be simpler or more sacred.

First we must defeat them.

And then we must jail them...

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