As you know, Stephen Harper has been caught in a trap of his own making.
Caught between the majority of Canadians who are demanding that him and his grotesque regime do more to help desperate Syrian refugees.
And the bigotry of his rabid base who are violently opposed to that idea, unless the migrants are Christians.
So now he is trying to wriggle out of that trap, and pleasure his base further, by declaring that the refugees are a terrorist menace.
Stephen Harper says the government is looking to improve the refugee resettlement process, but it will not airlift thousands of refugees from countries such as Syria and Iraq, where extremist organizations operate, without conducting a proper security screening.
Trying to turn the helpless into our enemies...
And to add insult to injury further declaring that when or if he brings in any refugees he will favour those from religious minorities i.e. Christians.
"We are going to make sure that we are selecting the most vulnerable bona fide refugees. Obviously with a focus on the religious and ethnic minorities that are the most vulnerable," Harper said during a campaign stop in Mississauga.
Even though most of the refugees are Muslim, and are just as frightened and desperate as any of the others.
Even though nothing is stopping him from screening the migrants in camps in Turkey, Greece, Europe, and Canada.
And even though countries like Germany that are planning to take in 500,000, don't seem too concerned about the terrorist menace.
And they're already doing a fantastic job of welcoming them to their country...
As every decent person in Canada knows we should be doing.
But then Stephen Harper is a low cruel beast, a man with no moral compass, who thinks he can get away with anything, and would shame us in the eyes of the world.
As would his grotesque stooge Peter Kent.
Who tried to pleasure his depraved master's terrorist fantasies yesterday only to end up looking like an idiot. Again.
Conservative candidate Peter Kent was forced to backpedal Tuesday, after sharing a photo over social media that mistakenly identifies a Syrian refugee as an Islamic State fighter. In the tweet, which has been deleted, Kent called the “then and now” photos “chilling reminders why prudent/detailed refugee screening” is essential.
When in fact it's the stooge Kent who should be screened to see if he's still mentally fit to be an MP.
It's an appalling spectacle, but the good news is that the Con's lack of basic humanity is hurting them in the polls.
They are getting regularly beaten up in the media.
Canada’s response to the refugee crisis has been terribly disappointing. While other major Western countries, one after another, have been promising to do more, Ottawa has been muttering into its lapels. A country that is justifiably proud of its record of compassion is looking very much the laggard – hesitant, reluctant, defensive.
It has fallen to Canadian mayors to say the right thing. If Stephen Harper hopes to serve again as prime minister, he would do well to listen to them. Canada’s mayors are putting him to shame.
Great Fishy Leader's deranged statements are being ridiculed...
Under questioning from the CBC’s Peter Mansbridge, the Prime Minister said there is no “refugee-based solution alone” to the crisis. “We’re not going to bring millions and tens of millions of people out of these regions. We can’t depopulate them. That’s – that’s not a solution.”
Nobody is saying that it is. Nobody is calling for the whole population of the Middle East to be moved to Brampton and Coquitlam.
And even Con friendly columnists like L. Ian MacDonald, are warning Stephen Harper that he's making a big mistake.
If Harper wants to get himself out from under this problem, he needs to take action. First, he needs to re-visit his claim last week that ISIS is the “root cause of the problem” in Syria — demonstrably false, since the Assad regime has been waging war on its own people for five years, leaving half of them homeless and millions more displaced.
He needs to stop lying, he needs to take action or it will cost him
But first, Harper needs to get it — and get on with it. Or voters may tell him to get out of the way.
And the best news? Harper can't do the right thing, even if he wanted to, because his rabid base won't allow him.
And since he can't afford to lose any of them, and even hope to win the next election.
The tail still wags his doggy...
— dan murphy (@dnmr1) August 30, 2015
He couldn't look less like a Great Leader or less human.
He is still caught in the trap of his own making.
And it will help destroy him...
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14 comments:
Exactly right Simon. The Con strategy was to lock down his rabid base with targeted propaganda for their eyes only and put on a somewhat softer Stevie face for the progressive conservatives during the election campaign. The strategy was to use branded code words like "defeat ISIS" , "strong economy" etc that Canadians were pre programmed to respond favorably to thanks to the millions of tax payer advertising to build up the message triggered by these code words over the past 10 years. The whole campaign was blown out of the water with that one picture of the Syrian boy lying lifeless on the beach much the same as the horrors of the Vietnam war came home with the picture of the burning Vietnamese girl running down the street in her village after bombardment with napalm. Powerful pictures that wipe out years of careful constructive lies in an instant!
Rt
"We are going to make sure that we are selecting the most vulnerable bona fide refugees. Obviously with a focus on the religious and ethnic minorities that are the most vulnerable".
In other words, Christians and Jews and other variants of the Abrahamic faith. In a nation that is largely Muslim, those "religious minorities" are of the faith that Harper is pandering to here in Canada. It is complete religious discrimination, and on a massive scale that is decidedly anti-humanitarian. Harper and his Cons are playing politics with the lives of the desperate, people desperate to flee areas that are being ripped apart by wars in which Harper is participating and encouraging, as well as due to environmental disasters spurred on by the reckless disregard for climate change and how to slow it down.
There is so much blood on Harper's hands, I just hope he can never seem clean again. Harper is almost like Shakespeare's Macbeth or Richard III, corrupt and bloody.
"Uncertain way of gain! But I am in
So far in blood that sin will pluck on sin;
Tear-falling pity dwells not in this eye"
- Richard III, Act IV Scene II
Simon, go to Le Devoir and click on today's editorial cartoon ... very hard-hitting about Steve and the dead boy.
We know a young woman of Syrian origin here who had been trying to help her aunt and other family members there emigrate, and it is a can of worms.
Peter Kent is particularly guilty, as he isn't stupid or a religious fundie. Shame.
I wonder just how much damage this determination not to accept refugees, and I don't see what else it can be called, is going to do. I had figured that the issue was very embarrassing for the Cons but not all that damaging. However the fact that people are organizing to sponsor refugees and there are no refugees to sponsor is not likely to impress people.
I suspect that a lot of soft Con support are interested in helping when service groups and religious organizations find out that the government has basically been lying to them about everything they are likely to remember this.
BTW, Tony Abbot, Harper's great buddy, said basically the same thing about religious minorities etc yesterday when he announced that Australia would accept several thousand refugees.
The Cons behaviour just does not make any political sense at all.
Kent said he stood “corrected” on the photo, which he said was passed along by a “trusted source
In keeping with the PM's somewhat shaky judgement of character, Mr Kent is doing well (for some value of well).
After the last fiasco with the photos of a school girl & teacher and a religious ceremony one would have thought they would have learned.
In my opinion, all Muslims/Arabs are "terrorists" in Steve's books. Last year when a doctor wanted to bring injured children from Gaza, the Cons denied them entry. they might be terrorists or their parents might be terrorists. At no point did Harper suggest only orphans be brought to Canada. End of problem
Steve and his base do not seem to understand the Muslim faith is multi faceted. Just like the Christian and Jewish faith. We have everything from wing nuts like Steve's religion, with believes the bible is innerant and the second coming is imminent to Catholics, Coptic Catholics, Ukrainian Catholics; Protestants, like Anglicans, Lutherns, United church, Baptists, Orthodox Jews, Hassidic Jews, Reformed Jews. the list just goes on and on.
All Steve has to do is send teams to the refugee camps. If the teams are comprised of RCMP officers, immigration and foreign affairs officers, along with Mennonite Refugee committee members we will end up with people who can contribute to Canada, adjust to Canada, and be good citizens. these teams would be able to interview the whole family. Those who pass, get loaded on a jet and taken to Canada. There are lots of cadet bases where they could be settled until they are sent on to their new homes.
Canada could easily take 10K this year and another 10K next yr, without disrupting our country or budget. There just needs to be the will. If Steve is smart, he could put the arm on the Saudi's and Qatar to "lend" a hand when it comes to money. They ought to be paying up.
burning Vietnamese girl - Phan Thi Kim Phuc - is now a Canadian citizen
She's been a Canadian citizen for a long time and is a spokesperson for War Children.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phan_Thi_Kim_Phuc Look how Nixon doubted her story then.
hi RT...yes I can't help feeling that we owe that poor little child a huge debt of gratitude. I think his death helped awaken our better angels, and revealed Stephen Harper in all his monstrosity. His regime was already rotten, but it took that tragedy to bring the tree down. Just like the picture of that burning girl helped turn feeling against the Vietnam war. You know, even now after almost ten years of attacking the Con regime day after day, I still can't quite believe what they have done to our country. But I believe the time has finally come when we will take it back...
hi Noah...yes it is another ghastly act of discrimination, from a man with no moral compass, who cares only about pleasing his bigot base. I too want to see religious minorities, and others like gay people, given safe haven. But to stand there like Mengele himself and decide who should live or who should die for crass political purposes is about as low as you can go. We really can save ourselves, and get rid of him soon enough...
hi lagatta...thanks for the tip. The Garnotte cartoon is a good one. Stephen Harper using a metal detector on the dead boy. He really is a beast, and this security angle is so contrived it beggars belief. How I long for the day when I never have to see our country degraded and shamed like that monster has done. And as for Peter Kent... my contempt runneth over...
hi jrkrideau...I think, and polls suggest, that it has done him a lot of damage. Sometimes as they say a picture is worth a thousand or a million words. I think it moved a lot of Canadians, awakened their better instincts, and coming at the time it did only reinforced the desire for change. For that is what will defeat him. He needs his base so badly, he can't do the right and decent Canadian thing. And that will help bring down his government...
hi e.a.f....yes, the way Stephen Harper has tried to stir up hatred against Muslims in this country is absolutely appalling. And for that alone he deserves to be removed from office. And a man who is always pitting one group of Canadians against another for crass political purposes is beneath contempt. I don't know what's going to happen in Syria, especially now that the Russians are said to be moving in to support the Assad regime. But I do know there are hundreds of thousands of desperate refugees out there. We could be doing more to help. But we never will until Harper and his filthy un-Canadian regime are finally defeated. One more reason to get rid of them...
The German ambassador says it's easy. Just take the orphan children first, then single parents with children, then family groups, then screen the rest more carefully. Germany isn't as paranoid as the harper regime. Most countries aren't except for Hungary of course.
The best doctor we ever had in our community was a Muslim from Libya. Compassionate and caring, especially of the older people.
http://www.ledevoir.com/galeries-photos/les-caricatures-de-garnotte/227112
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