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Terror Land North:
Canada Becomes America's New Next Threat
C. L. Cook
PEJ News
June 8, 2008
It's a measure the Harper government, and its predecessors, have lobbied hard to prevent, taking the position Canada is not a safe harbour to fanatical Islamists, bent on attacking America. Ironically, the Canadian media's eagerness to trade jurisprudence for juicy headlines in the alleged plot to "decapitate" the Prime Minister, and perform a host of other, equally implausible schemes may prove the end of the Canadian lobby.
Canada's position is that the legislation, drafted through the Department of Homeland Defense, and due to go into force in 2008, will cripple the economies of both countries, who now enjoy the largest bilateral trade flow in the world. It's always been a profitable, if uneven relationship, one successive Canadian governments have bent over backwards to preserve; but, none have bent so far as the current minority Conservatives under Stephen Harper.
In the past, Canada has turned a blind eye on its self-avowed belief in human rights, ignoring its famous high ideals, remaining mum as our good cousins ran roughshod throughout the third world, leaving a rising tide of blood and misery in their wake. Fearing upset in the south, a parade of second rate Canadian politicos kowtowed to Washington, some going so far as to labour from the boardrooms of Bay Street, and the backrooms of Ottawa to further the interests of their friends along the Potomac. Some too being recruited to fight for those interests from the floor of the Parliament.
But, none have gone so far as this current claque of collaborators.
Preceding the media extravaganza staged last week in Toronto, the Harper government transcended its long disdain for Canadian culture, went beyond contempt of "socialized" medicine and the rights of citizens, irregardless of whose beds they choose to spend their nights in, and stabbed at the heart of the nation's self-understanding, however hypocritically practiced, as a land respecting the rule of law at home and abroad.
Parroting George W. Bush's "legal" councillor, since elevated to that sorry republic's Numero Uno law man, Alberto Gonzales, Stephen Harper's government says now they too will deny the Geneva Convention, refusing to grant the growing number of prisoners taken in Afghanistan the protections those documents guarantee. Through the same legal double-speak, Harper's mob now refers to those unfortunates, taken from their beds, bound, hooded, and delivered to torture chambers in Bagram Air Base, and God knows which other Hell holes, as "enemy combatants."
It seems now, acquiescence is not enough, silent complicity insufficient; the ravenous murderers ruling the south now require more than we Canadians share in the blood bath that has become Iraq and Afghanistan, Colombia, and elsewhere, but must now do so openly, flaunting both decency and international law.
We must too become war criminals.
And tonight, Peter Mansbridge, manning the bridge of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's flagship, The National, repeated the sensational claims made by the RCMP concerning the arrests made last week, disregarding both the paucity of their case, and the broader implications the current course of Canadian politics portends.
As for passports to visit America; all who would go there deserve all the harrassment the American police state can afford.
[For Ms. Doocey, and any others that would direct hated response: please, read my response to Ms. D.
thanks for your attention to the site, Ms. Doocey; we welcome feedback, but insist it rise above what passes in your sad republic for discourse. If you wish to further offer your opinions, please be aware; we demand respectful analysis, devoid of personal attacks, and ad hominem slurs. If you have a serious and thoughtful comment to make, please feel free to contribute.
cheers
chris cook
senior editor
p.s. As you appear interested in this issue, please see: Terror Land North at: http://tinyurl.com/p7un9
And, for more on Alberto Gonzales, please see Chris Floyd's insightful piece, here. - lex]
Chris Cook is a contributing editor to PEJ News, and host of the weekly public affairs program, Gorilla Radio. You can check out the GR Blog here.
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