It must be silly season

Well for we citizens of the GWN (Great White North) looking at American politics is always an interesting and rather humorous exercise as well as being somewhat frightening.

First of all you have Michele Bachmann who said during the Republican debates that the countries that the US "liberated" should pay for their "liberation". I'm sure that the Iraqis really appreciated being liberated (read invaded) after 100000 civilians dead and four million displaced, as well as having their infrastructure destroyed and their standard of living crushed. First of all they never asked to be invaded and then occupied for the next nine years and I'm sure a lot of them that lost family and friends would love to payback the US although I'm not sure the US would like the payback. Now Ms. Bachman has a right to her opinion but there really should be an intelligence test to become President of t he United States.

The next person that caught my attention was Rick Perry who believes that it is the United Sates' god given right to rule the world. He also believes that the economic recession was god's punishment for not being good christians. He also doesn't believe in evolution and really believes that god talks to him. Here in the GWN we have special places for people who hear voices telling them to do weird things. What really boggles the mind is that he was elected governor, but then again Texas also elected George W. Bush. (Who, by the way, seems a real genius beside this yahoo)

Here in the GWN, we are also not exempt from political weirdness. We have the Honourable Lisa Raitt, Minister of Labour, who wants to change the labour code so that the economy becomes an essential service, which would in effect take away pretty much everyone's right to strike, letting companies pretty much do what they want…. Somehow coming from the conservatives this doesn't surprise me, but what does surprise me is that the same workers elected them in the first place.

 

Bring the man home.

I was just reading a news story from the CBC about the Mr. Abdelrazik, a canadian, who has been stranded in Sudan for the last six years and living in the Canadian Embassy for the last year all because the Canadian government under our right wing reactionary PM, Harper, refuses to give him his travel papers. As a reason they give the fact that he is on a UN terrorist watch list list even though the RCMP and CSIS (our clownishly paranoid spy agency. kind of like a CIA wanna-be) have cleared him of having any terrorist links. (They were probably the ones that put him on the list in the first place. What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty)
Today the Federal Court of Canada has told the Canadian Government that by refusing to repatriate him, they are denying him his rights as guaranteed under the Charter of Rights in the Constitution. Otherwise saying they are breaking the law, pretty much as "Bushie" was doing during his mandate. These right wing rednecks are really not great believers in the rule of law. The court has given them thirty days to comply, and what do you think their answer was... "The Department of Justice will study the judgement." How much do you want to bet they'll appeal and stall it in the courts until they get booted out of parliament. Canadians should be ashamed of having elected such a bunch of right wing reactionary morons.

Mr. Prime Minister, your role is to uphold the Canadian Constitution and the rule of law. If you can't do anything else right can you at least try to do that.

Justice is served

Today the Supreme Court of Canada made me proud to be a Canadian. It threw out the provisions of Canada's Anti-Terrorism law making it legal to detain a person indefinitely without trial.
The current Federal law allows sensitive intelligence information to be heard privately by a federal judge , with only sketchy summaries given to defense attorneys. ( Of course the people doing the accusing are the ones who decide what information can be given to the accused. This usually means next to nothing.) If the people choose to fight their deportation they can spend years in jail while the cases go through the courts. Even if they are freed, they risk being labeled as terrorists. (Maher Arar comes to mind) This means that the accused has no way of knowing the complete charges against him and therefore no way of being able to adequately defend himself.
The justices of the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision (9-0), stated that certain parts of the law that pertain to the certificates are against the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and they give parliament one year to make changes to the law.
''The overarching principle of fundamental justice that applies here is this: before the state can detain people for significant periods of time, it must accord them a fair judicial process,'' Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote in the ruling.
In the last couple of years our liberties have gradually been eroded in the name of security. To tell you the truth, I feel that these draconian laws are far more dangerous than any terrorist attack. The loss of liberty and freedom usually does not come in a terrible revolution but is a gradual giving away of our rights. Once started it is too easy to justify still more sacrifices until there is nothing left.
We would do well to remember that in the Germany of the 1930's, Adolf Hitler was democratically elected and by the manipulation of the public's fear was able to take complete power. Too many Canadians gave their lives to stop him and to protect the freedom that we enjoy today. Thank g*d. we are still far from that situation and hopefully with today's Supreme Court decision we will be farther still.
Maybe the men who were detained are guilty of something, if so put them on trial and give them a chance to defend themselves. If they are found guilty, then you can deport them. To not do so, not only infringes their rights but it diminishes everyones.

PS: I found a nice quote in the Montréal Gazette that fits perfectly.
"I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample underfoot." Horace Greeley