Thursday, August 06, 2009

Ignoring the Will of Parliament, Again

This is Rodney Watson. He served in Iraq, until he realised that he'd been sold a bill of goods and that war had nothing to do with 9-11. He was horrified by what he saw there and made the decision not to return.

He, like many others sought refuge in Canada, because, you know...we used to be a compassionate country. No more though. Sadly Watson is seeing, along with the rest of us, that the country has changed under this government and compassion, not to mention logic, is not in their lexicon.

He's been ordered deported on August 10, 2009.

The typical right wing vacuous talking points ignore one important factor. We live in a democracy and our parliament has spoken on this. Twice in fact.

That's right. The majority in the House of Commons voted to have the government cease these deportations. To not do so would ignore the will of Parliament. They even sent the government a friendly reminder of said votes before rising for the summer.

Did I say we lived in a democracy? Silly me. Not so much with this government in power.

There is more here. Please take the time to drop a quick e-mail to the appropriate critic included in that link.

h/t - Antonia Z

19 comments:

ridenrain said...

We used to let these people in when the US had the draft. This fool joined knowing full well that the US army sometimes goes to war. He deserves no more a break than any other criminal who trys to reneg on a contract.

Karen said...

ridenrain...this is over your head?

He joined because he bought/ate the crap Bolton and Bush fed him. Guess what? He threw up, like most of us, and decided that right was right.

Criminal? What idiocy!

Who/what is criminal here is the government of Canada, and YOU who think, believe, follow, kneel, and think they do no wrong. Idiocy personified.

You ignore fact and you ignore democracy.

I'm so surprised!

Anonymous said...

The government has the right to deport them. If they are not happy there is a court system in our country. The government is the government not the opposition. If they don't like the government, vote none confidence.

There is no draft in the U.S. If you join you don't decide when to go to war and where. The president has that power not the soldiers. So if you don't want to risk going to war "DON'T JOIN"period. It's an illegal act when you go AWOL. Don't give me the compassion bit,how about the compassion to their team mates who counted on these people that went AWOL to protect them.

Karen said...

And when your President lies to you...like our PM lies to us...tha's okay? We must stand by that?

Idiotic to the nth degree!

Most of us think outside of the confines of lies. And, most of us in this country respect the will of parliament.

Those who sanction Harper's rule do not. They do not respect democracy, period, end of story.

Cari said...

I wrote an email to Harper and gave him a piece of my mind.

Jay said...

Strange. Didn't know you could just ignore the will of law here in canada. Thanks conservatives. The more you know. There is no way to argue the fact that Harper and co ARE ignoring the will of Parliament.

This is as bad as a coup. A REAL coup not the con definition which includes the lawful functioning of parliament.

Cari said...

A great deal here ,.. in the long run, is that Harper does not care about Democracy, the kind of Democracy in Parliament, when the Majority of the Opposition, voted "no" on the deportation of these people.He has a Minority, and he must remember that.

Anonymous said...

"And when your President lies to you...like our PM lies to us...tha's okay? We must stand by that?"

Vote them out of office! Do you want police officers,firefighters,health-care workers,taxpayers etc.etc...to just stop doing their work or us tax payers just stop paying taxes,because some politician lied to us?

If we go by your logic here,back in the early 90's when the Liberals decided to renege on the GST,should Canadians have stopped paying the GST because the Liberals lied to us? Of course not! We have a processes in our democracy.We vote them out,we bring them to court.

Anonymous said...

Jay what the heck are you talking about? The motion that passed in parliament is a non-binding motion.So there is no law broken here.

"This is as bad as a coup. A REAL coup not the con definition which includes the lawful functioning of parliament."

You are comparing this to a coup,you must have already one too many drinks.

laura k said...

Thanks for posting this, and for any calls and emails. It's important to block out the noise and focus on justice.

foottothefire said...

For those of us who know, Jason Kenney is an asshole at best and otherwise one ignorant son of a bitch... but hang on. We have tons of like minded shit in Calgary and all it'll take to see it happen is...Harper's majority. The only way to deal with this situation is to correct the last election and throw the bastards out. The best thing we as individuals can do is get people to vote; get active in promoting the necessity - the imperative necessity - to vote.

Good luck to the refugee claimants but our country needs to be salvaged first.

ridenrain said...

Do you seriously want to believe that this might be the very first US soldier who didn't believe the president of the US was telling the truth?

Since this is so compelling, maybe it's good enough for the Enron executives, Bernie Madoff and all the banking cronies to jump their punishment and responsibilities and come to hide in Canada too. After all, Bush probably lied to them too.

Robert McBean. said...

Actually, its the US Congress's right to declare war under their system. Bush usurped this power. Technically, they are deserters under US law, however Barack Obama could/should pardon them,like Carter and Clinton did. Or we could give them citizenship. I think they have a good argument that the invasion of Iraq was illegal and their terms of service was based on deceit.

Just don't make them live in Etobicoke.

penlan said...

ProudC wrote:
"Vote them out of office!"

Oh we will, PC, we will. Not just out of office but out of politics completely.

RuralSandi said...

Using police and firemen to make a point - good grief - the extremes.

Soldiers sign up to protect their country and fight for their country - Iraq didn't attack, nor was it an immediate threat to the US. It was an "illegal" war. You see, soldiers risk their lives and it is the responsibility of any government to make sure the war is worthy of their bravery and sacrifice - Bush/Cheney let their military down, sent them on a phony mission - actually wanting them to risk their lives on a lie.

It's Bush/Cheney that should be deported.

Anonymous said...

RS

"Using police and firemen to make a point - good grief - the extremes."

It's the same principle. Soldiers protect us on foreign ground,while police and firemen are on domestic ground.

If you have problems with former politicians domestic or foreign there is a court system. Do you know when a minister resigns from their post the Prime Minister has to accept their resignation.Why do you think that is?How many times we heard in the past that a minister offered their resignation,but the PM refused? You just can't leave when you feel like it,we have rules and laws. Go threw the proper channels "courts" or vote them "out!" Last thing think twice before singing a military contract or any-other contracts.

Anonymous said...

ProudCanadian -huh??!!

The "government" has a responsbility to make sure soldiers are sent to battle for "good" reason. Bush/Cheney "lied" - a soldier signs up on lies - what's so hard to understand.

Larry said...

There's no draft in the US. No one made him join and there's always the chance you'll be shipped off somewhere.

If he didn't know that, then he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Anonymous said...

To Larry:

"There's no draft in the US. No one made him join and there's always the chance you'll be shipped off somewhere."

"If he didn't know that, then he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer."

You're 100% correct,but there is a problem some of these people here on this post don't want to hear logic and reason so don't waste energy.