Is Stephen Harper Planning to Conscript Young Canadians?

There's a strange and disturbing story circulating quietly on the internet. It was forwarded to me by someone I trust.

And it seems to show that the CBC wrote a story claiming that Stephen Harper was thinking about conscripting young Canadians if he is re-elected.

Only to quickly delete it a few hours later.

Because here are some paragraphs from that story:

Harper may start drafting Canadian youth if re-elected Did John Baird resign over proposed conscription bill? 

CBC News Posted: Mar 31, 2015 1:34 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 31, 2015 3:16 PM ET 

When former foreign affairs minister John Baird announced in February he would be resigning from cabinet, there was one secret he was keeping: his falling out with the Prime Minister over Harper's plan to introduce a conscription bill shortly after the federal election. 

In a February interview with CBC's chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge, Baird said he didn't want to become one of the "lifers" in federal politics. He had made the decision to leave politics to pursue career opportunities in the private sector.

But according to two reliable sources — both close friends of Baird — it was during a special closed-door meeting with Baird, Harper and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in January 2014 — on the third day of Harper's four-day trip to Israel — that Harper discussed the possibility of a conscription bill for 18-year-old men and women, based on the Israeli model.

According to an official in the Department of National Defence, interviewed on condition of anonymity, the normal length of compulsory service for Canadians would only be one year for men and women. Should a conscript wish to serve a second or third year, or make the military a career, he or she could apply after completing the initial year of training.

An automatic postponement — not exemption — would be granted for any teen who had not graduated from secondary/high school.

But when you click on this clearly labelled link to that story: 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/harper-may-start-drafting-Canadian-youth-if-re-elected-1.3016085

You now get this story.

So now what I'd like to know is why was the conscription story deleted? Was it because it was wrong? Was it because one or both of those "reliable sources" backed down? Was any pressure brought to bear on management by those who now run the Conservative Broadcasting Corporation? 

Or was it simply a figment of the fevered imagination of one of the poor underpaid and overstressed slaves who work there? And since it was published on the 31st was it just a proposed April Fool's joke that went horribly wrong?

My guess is it probably was just that, because if the DND stuff is true we're already living in a police state even before the Cons pass Bill C-51. And I can't imagine anyone in our cowed military speaking about anything without getting the approval of the PMO.

But the problem is the story is out there, and we do need an explanation, because it could be true.

We are living in a country with a brutish Con regime that is stomping on our liberties, making a mockery out of our democracy, muzzling its opponents, mugging our justice system, and assaulting our values.



And its morally depraved, and power drunk leader Stephen Harper is quite capable of introducing conscription, if only to punish the young for being so progressive.

And above all to further militarize our country, and its history, as he has been trying to do from the moment his RepubliCons came to power.

So we really do need to know if that story is true or not.

And of course, we need to work as hard as we possibly can to defeat Harper and foul Con regime.

Because when a story like that one can seem perfectly plausible, and require an urgent explanation, we are clearly not living in Canada.

And this monstrous leader, who governs with fear, and thrives on paranoia

Cannot be defeated soon enough...



And the really good news? Judging from the reaction of my 17-year-old cousin, I think we can use the story to encourage more younger Canadians to vote. In numbers never seen before.

Yup. We shall take the nightmares he creates.

And use them to destroy him...

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