There Just Ain’t Room for Refugees in Canada

I need to work on my drawing skills. But I made a comic.

 

Conservative front page ad exemplifies just how “conservative” they are

This must have been cheap.

The Ottawa Citizen Should Vet Their Ads

It’s not unheard of, or even rare, nowadays in this world of clicks and impressions and maximizing the online ad revenue of every single pixel. But that doesn’t make it excusable.

Today in The Ottawa Citizen, smack dab in the middle of an open letter titled “Fear-mongering shows contempt for a politics of mutual respect”, was an ad by Christianity.com justifying the genocide and apartheid currently underway in Palestine. It is promoting the very “wedge politics” and “fear-mongering” that the letter is denouncing.

Mind you, it only showed up when I read the letter on my phone, but was not there when I checked it on my PC.

The letter is not about what is happening in Israel and Palestine, and it is safe assume that it hit upon some keywords that Christianity.com was hoping to attract: fear-mongering, Harper, barbaric practices, etc.

Still, that does not absolve the news outlet of responsibility. Unless it was intentional. Then that, of course, is a different matter altogether.

Here’s a shortened screenshot of the letter:

Six Most Wanted under the Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act

Here is a proposed list of offenders under Bill S-7, the Canadian Conservative government’s Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act.

Stephen Harper, M.D.

If Stephen Harper were a doctor…

Conservatives Take Commanding Lead, Can Sit Back and Relax

The federal Conservative Party of Canada has taken a commanding lead in a new poll conducted after the French language leaders debate yesterday.

Canadian Crime Minister Stephen Harper stood back and smiled as the other party leaders tore each other apart, assuring his party another five years of majority government.

With the assistance of Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe delivering ominous warnings of Quebec’s one hundred niqab-wearing women representing a greater threat than climate change, mass unemployment and unaffordable health care combined, Harper and his followers are set on cruise control to victory. They won’t even need a lot of their supporters to show up on Election Day.

So be thankful Conservative voters, you don’t really need to vote this year. Take the day off and relax. Fishing, hunting, church. Whatever! The day is yours.

I Hope the Conservatives Do This Well

The last time the federal Conservatives lost an incumbent government was in 1993, shortly after the much-despised Brian Mulroney had absconded and left Kim Campbell as his Fall Gal.

The doe in the headlights (mis)led the party to a jaw-dropping defeat in which they fell from a majority government with 156 seats down to only two. It was incredible. An absolute bloodbath.

It was from within the filthy dust and rubble and rotting corpses of that decimation that Harper was able to weasel his way into power. It would be nice to see him go out the same way.

2015 Canadian Federal Election EZ-Chart

While the real aim should be to abolish the party system altogether, political parties must be indulged for the present time. They’re like that kid with hockey net who nobody likes. And somehow, even though highly undemocratic, they are paradoxically a feature of self-proclaimed democracies around the world.

But I digress… This simple chart helps illustrate where the four major Canadian federal political parties stand on selected issues. It’s quite straightforward: the checks and crosses indicate a FOR or AGAINST the corresponding issue. It makes no declaration about whether it is GOOD or BAD to be for or against said issues. The check does not indicate whether they have the “correct position” on an issue. There is no judgment here. Just the facts. Pure, unadulterated objectivity.

For example, the first issue is the environment. Does the Green Party support the environment? Well, sure. That’s pretty evident. But do the Conservatives? Well no, not really. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? That’s up to everyone to do decide on their own.

Those Lives That Matter

A mural in Ottawa that was a tribute to Sandra Bland was defaced on Monday. The mural had the popular tagline “Black Lives Matter” inscribed along wit it. Someone(s) had then, of course, thought it necessary to paint “ALL LIVES MATTER” over top of it.

The “All Lives Matter” argument is moronic. Nobody is chanting “Black Lives Matter More“. They are not screaming “Kill Whitey.” I understand a lot of obtuse Americans need to clarify that ALL LIVES MATTER. But I’m surprised to see that paint hit the wall in Canada. Perhaps there was a tourist (or two) in town due to that great Ottawa promotion by John Oliver last week.

I reckon the people who have a problem with “Black Lives Matter” are the same people who have a problem with Pride Parades.

Canada’s Niqab Distraction

Last year, long-time Canadian resident Zunera Ishaq postponed her citizenship when she refused to remove her niqab during the oath swearing portion of her citizenship ceremony. And now politicians and media folk alike are all over the story as though it was the quashing of the Second Amendment in America.

The most important question, as usual, is Why is this news? And Why now? Why has this story gained so much (dis)traction? At first glance it may appear to be backfiring against the Conservatives. With his advice for potential immigrants to “stay the hell where you came from“, Conservative MP Larry Miller is effectively taking a hit for the team. A small hit, mind you, that he returns with a jab for lasting effect. Like the trial lawyer who makes an inflammatory, prejudicial remark quickly followed by the opposition’s “Objection!”, the damage is done. The jury cannot un-hear the damning words. Nor can the electorate.

It is not Larry Miller’s crass comment that will sink in and take root. It is the divisiveness it abets. His comment combined with the plethora of other Conservative rhetoric, military actions, Bill C-51 and so on, further emboldens and strengthens the “Us and Them” dichotomy the Conservatives and their puppeteers aim to cultivate. Already, there are online polls (polling 0.0003% of the nation) in major media outlets suggesting such-and-such a number of Canadians oppose niqabs  at swearing in ceremonies.

They speak of Canadian values, such as freedom. While I am an agnostic who thinks religion often receives too much tolerance — it is only when that tolerance comes at the expense of others that I actually care. And admittedly, the niqab does strike me as an archaic, outdated, oppressive and sexist tradition. However, the argument can be made about women’s clothing standards in The West being similarly (and even more painfully) oppressive. Corsets, of course, but also high heels, tight skirts, bras and so on. It’s a more than fair argument. And whether I, or anyone else, think a religious tradition is stupid or not is inconsequential. Smoking and drinking are stupid, far stupider than wearing a face veil in the name of religion, but the Canadian government permits and taxes both. Even the wishy-washy, fear-mongering Justin Trudeau (who supports the fascistic Bill C-51) pointed out that the Conservatives are “liberating people from oppression by dictating in law what they can and cannot wear.”

They speak of security. Even though there is recourse for people to be fingerprinted under appropriate circumstances. I reckon this is more effective than a face check. Furthermore, the person at the ceremony, if an impostor, does not recieve citizenship just because they took the oath. It is not a magic spell. And it’s not like the end of a Scooby-Doo episode where they whip off her mask to reveal her true identity.

This entire affair is a distraction from what we should really be talking about. And no, it is not the economy. It is not jobs. It is definitely not the bogus threat of terrorism. The only thing to talk about is the environment. Earth. When you are laying in hospital with a potentially terminal illness you care about only one thing. It is not your medical bill. It is not what your nurse is wearing. It is not crime and punishment nor interest rates. It is curing that illness. All else is moot if you’re dead. And the Earth is dying. And in need of curing. Everything else is moot.