Screencapture from the CBC story following the Harper Government's re-announcement that they plan to do a little less than ziltch for this Canadian being held in a US prison.
I get that sometimes it’s easier to forget the horrible mistakes we made. For example, adding a competitive poutine-eating station into the outdoor skating rink obstacle course in first year university. It doesn’t take a physics major to know that puke and ice don’t mix.
But in the case of one of our country’s biggest poutine-overconsumption-esque boo-boos, the Canadian government has an obligation not only not to forget that it meekly stood by while a 15 year old citizen was unjustly incarcerated by the US government, but furthermore to fix the situation by now repatriating him, eight years later.
Instead, Harper and colleagues have chosen the path of least responsibility, the “Omar WHO??” defense. This is sad for myriad reasons, but obviously the main one is that it shirks a government’s obligation to defend and fight for the rights of its own citizens, particularly those who have not been proven guilty. For those of you unfamiliar with the debacle, a backgrounder by CBC is here.
This story of inaction resonates with me deeply. I’m the same age as Omar, I too was born in a Canadian hospital, raised in a Canadian city, and I too had some kooky parents that left something to be desired on the parenting file. My dad encouraged me to participate in soap box derbies down unsafely steep and often car-addled terrain. His dad encouraged him to consider terrorism as a future career.
The point is, we can’t blame people for their parents, especially as minors. It was wrong and the Canadian Government needs to fight to bring Khadr home.
Read this article first in order to maximize blog-reading experience.
If the circulation statistics, advertising sales, and voice inside my head are to be believed, the National Post is disappearing from many Canadians’ coffee tables (though it does populate more and more fireplaces). Forgive us for being skeptical. We would wave good-bye without shedding a tear, but we are pretty sure this angry, divisive and dubious “paper” is simply pretending to disappear.
To start, the radical writers behind their editorials have done untold damage to families, our court systems, labour laws, constitutional freedoms and even the ordinary relations between men and women.
National Post editorials have taught that all time spent reading the National Post — or nearly all — would have been better spent making paper mache Stephen Harper tribute dolls. Their Editorial Board has argued, with approximately-whatever-a-friendly-thesaurus-word-is-for-ZERO success, that rights should be granted not to individuals alone, but to whole Editorial Boards, too. This has led to newspaper subsidy – printing papers based on one’s depth of pocket rather than on an objective assessment of quality reporting. read more…
“What does an ulcer feel like?” Zoe asked us aloud as she tilted her head for a split second and pondered the striking throb in her lower right stomach after a double cappuccino chug. “I could Google it,” she announced.
“Well that didn’t help me much, except to tell me that I probably “work too much”. Shocking, thanks for nothing Wikipedia.”
In that exact moment we considered calling the Prime Minister’s Office and asking, “So sorry to disturb, but is the reason that Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament because he was afraid of getting an ulcer?”
Surprisingly, we realized, mid-visualization, that we might actually rest content if the answer on the other end of the line was, “Why, yes!” because a reason – ANY reason – would have been an excellent start to Harper’s “Dear John” letter to the nation.
Instead, he went all old-school and sent it to Canadians telegraph style:
PARLIAMENT CANCELLED STOP OLYMPIC FOCUS URGENT STOP PRETEND NOTHING HAPPENED STOP TTYL
STEPHEN
And with that, here is a snapshot of where our country is at, where it could have gone, and where it will go instead, in the next 60 days:
So here’s why I interrupted my frivolous YouTube watching of recent Glee episodes (which I watch primarily to life-plan for the day that climate change is solved and I can finally pursue my dream of amateur Broadway. It’s between that and becoming the Jodie Foster à la Contact):
It’s that time of month again. Alllll the countries in the world (that can afford it) are in Bankok for a United Nations meeting on climate change. There has been a handful of them this year, about once every 6 weeks. There are discussion and working meetings for countries to talk about their climate change commitments.
The last of this year (where all the decisions have to be made) is in Copenhagen in December. (Kind of like each week of So You Think You Can Dance Canada leading up to the final showdown, and everybody wins in their heart regardless of those who technically come out on top.)
One would think, hope, etc, that the United Nations is an efficient and effective playground for ideas and decisions that ultimately impact the world for the better. Today in plenary, the main hall in talks that include all countries, Canada dragged out the conversation for a little longer than I would deem allowable, even by democratic standards. read more…
I can’t stand either. (Read: Major gaps existing in otherwise quite good material and design.)
Said tights.
Said bill.
Among the most important memos of the 21st century (aside from ‘It’s highly respected to still know all the words to New Kids on the Block’s ‘Step by Step’” and ‘No, it’s not okay to wear tights as pants, especially the slitted ones from American Apparel.’) is: ‘All other governments in the developed world are doing way more on climate change than Canada’.
Memos are what they are. Pop culture stands strong, fads fade (or are imagined) and the ambition of politicians tends to fall out of their pockets unnoticeably as they run down the halls of Parliament to their next meeting.
Turns out, losing ambition also means losing cred as a country that used to pride itself on environmental leadership – perhaps one of the biggest slip-ups of our time. (Likewise, losing your concept of ‘pants’ also means losing cred as a person who used to be able to dress themselves – perhaps one of the biggest plead to be on What Not To Wear of this season*).
Oh you have GOT to be kidding me. Did someone remove the term “common sense” from the reference copy of the OED at the PMO?
On Thursday afternoon, Prime Minister Harper once again showed that he really does subscribe to the “do as I say, not as I do” school of leadership. After years of ragging on the Senate as an upper house chock-a-block with patronage appointments and “a dumping ground for the favoured cronies of the Prime Minister”, he himself decided to fill nine of the newly vacant seats in the Red Chamber with…well…his own brand of favoured cronies.
Among the holders of the parliamentary equivalent to a golden ticket are former Conservative Party organizer (not to mention husband to current MP Diane Finley) Doug Finley, and long time Harper communications aide Carolyn Stewart-Olsen. Defeated Conservative candidate Claude Carignan and Conservative Party president Don Plett are also in the mix.
Now, I’m not a doctor, but I would have thought that if one had been quite vocal in their disdain for patronage appointments to the Senate when one was in Opposition, one would then refrain from engaging in patronage appointments to the Senate when one became Prime Minister. No? Too Soon? read more…
You know how word limits on papers are often more limiting than an unlimited length? This is a little how we feel with this story; it has almost too many speaking points. Let’s start at the very beginning: “Man carries assault rifle to protest”. Let us put the legality thing aside for just a moment.
Now, maybe it’s just us. Maybe we’re just a trio of radical, new-age, left-wing communists who would love nothing more than to dismantle a centuries-old constitutional right. Maybe we’re just a bunch of Birkenstock-sporting, I’m-okay-you’re-okay, Dude-where’s-my-dread-wax hippies who want only world peace and saved whales. Maybe we’re just intellectual East-Coast eggheads who see a more constructive resolution to conflicts than to meet at high noon and settle it like absurdly well-armed cowboys. So you’ll have to forgive us on this whole legality aspect, as it does get just a little fuzzy when the second you actually use this accessory we have never seen Clinton and Stacey suggest it becomes illegal, doesn’t it?
read more…
When all is said and done, that’s where we come in. Three oft befuddled Canadians who wake each day torn between a desire to save the world and begrudgingly deliver satirical remarks on the sometimes unbelievable, yet entirely true, state of the world.
The story?
Forserious.ca came about as a response to the head-scratchingly say-what?-inducing actions by people who are:
a) representing Canadians politically;
b) representing our neighbours, but as a result of geography, hegemony, and sheer convenience, affecting us, too; and/or
c) reveling in inflated livelihoods arising from, but not limited to: bailouts, creative accounting, or a fuzzy sense of ethics; and/or
d) hellbent on appearing among the newsworthy seemingly to enhance the satisfaction of googling themselves. read more…
