A Doctor, A Rabbi and A Nobel Laureate Walk Into.. (part 2)

The Governments response to leaving many well deserving people of help is that (given by a spokesperson):

   “Right now, nearly 95 per cent of people who come here from the European Union and claim asylum either withdraw or abandon their own claim,” said the spokesman, because they cannot make a legitimate case for asylum. He added that 100 per cent of people who come from the European Union register for welfare.

First just because 95% percent of people can't support their refugee claim does that make the other 5% not deserving at all, and second saying that 100 percent of them register for welfare is a silly fact. This is because it should come to no surprise to Harper that people who are refugee's and have suffered and treated badly in their own country do require help. How is this bad! This is reality! People who are poor require help!


I think it is outrages that a country that has been practically portrayed itself as an immigrant country doesn't do as much as it can to ensure that people who are treated badly in other countries have a place where they can start a whole new life. 


Yet according to our government this "reform" is needed and will save 20 million dollars. 20 million dollars is what we are talking about here. Hey I have an idea had Harper not spent the 20 million dollars on those consultants (remember those to help balance the budget, which according to Harper during the 2011 election he and only he could do) we could afford helping people who are in need. 




I believe that their is a legitimate concern about pointless refugee claims, but this reform is in no way going to ensure that people who have a legitimate claim to seek refuge here will receive it. 

Mr. Wiesel, who survived the Auschwitz death camp to become a renowned scholar and political activist in the United States, said this week in a written statement obtained by The Globe and Mail that he stands in solidarity with the Toronto Rabbis. The rabbis said it is wrong for the government to designate some countries as being “safe” and to deny payments for medical treatments obtained by asylum seekers from those places.

Read more here

A Doctor, A Rabbi and A Nobel Laureate Walk Into... (Part 1)

The Conservative cuts to refugee Health Care have sparked some controversy. And now doctors all around Canada as well as a Toronto Rabbi group from Toronto and even Elie Wisel a Nobel Laureate are joining together against these cuts.

The "reform" the Harper Government is proposing will designate which countries Canada considers safe and which Canada considers not safe. The people who come from the countries that Canada considers safe will receive no benefits what so ever. The safe country list and the not safe country list will be presented soon, but it is expected that Hungary will be on the safe list.

The Problem is that Canada main source of Asylum seekers are from Hungary and many of which are roma. A group that has been treated very badly especially in the last few years by the society in Hungary. The reforms will also effect countries that are not on the safe list no longer are able to get many services including:

payments for prescription drugs, vision care and dental coverage. They are entitled to medical health coverage only if it is of “an urgent or essential nature.”

This "reform" will take away help from legitimate refugee's and will again tarnish Canada's record on the world stage.

The top country of origin for refugee claimants in Canada is Hungary, and the majority of those refugees are Roma, a group that has had a strong bond with the Jews dating back to the Second World War.

As a former refugee, together with the Toronto Board of Rabbis, I feel morally compelled to remain on the side of other uprooted men and women everywhere,” said Mr. Wiesel, who was a keynote speaker two years ago at a conference on anti-Semitism in Ottawa that was organized with the help of Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, the minister behind the refugee reforms. “Today, as yesterday, a nation is judged by its attitude towards refugees,” Mr. Wiesel wrote.

Read More here

Rascism is Still There!

In the United states we all knew that racism was still there, but the ratio between white and minorities has gotten bigger. In fact a white households make 20 times more than an African American household, and 18 times more than Hispanic households.

"These lopsided wealth ratios are the largest since the government began publishing such data a quarter-century ago and roughly twice the size of the ratios that had prevailed between these three groups for the two decades prior to the Great Recession," reported Pew.

 Unemployment of African American is 16.2 percent. White unemployment is half of that! The reason for this was not just because discrimination practices in business, but the reason for this record gap was because most minorities went into jobs that left away during the recession. Jobs like infrastructure and construction. What the U.S needs to do is to balance the budget, but while still offering more help to poorer Americans which today tend to be minorities. The problem is that this is hard to do. Everyone should sacrifice to balance the budget, but we must priorities. The top 500 Americans make more money than the bottom 50% (150 million) That means that clearly those 500 Americans should pay first! Increase the income tax on the rich not only to 40% (bill Clinton era) But raise it to 50%. Then cut government programs for the rich. Before we throw the poor under the bus let's see how much we can make the rich pay so the poor people in the U.S don't pay too much. The problem for minorities is that they can't move up the ladder, because the U.S has been making it harder for the poor to get higher, And since the poor tend to be minorities they stay there on the bottom.

Read more here 

Extremism is Blind to All

just like how Love is blind so is extremism. Love is blind to race and gender, and Extremism is blind to race and religion  The last tragedy that happened in Norway showed us that anyone can be an extremist and do many terrible things. Muslims aren't the only one's who have committed terrible acts. The Norwegian was a christian fundamentalist. We should learn that all religions have terrorist group, and not point the figure at one specific religion and say they are the cause of everything or the most. the vast majority of terrorist attacks are non religious. In the U.S a large part of terrorism is caused by Eco terrorism and animal rights terrorism. left wing terrorism any many circumstances is higher than right wing terrorism. So we can see than no one political ideology has the monopoly on terrorism. There should be no racial profiling, because anyone can be a terrorist. Not just one group. I think if people need to be stopped on an airport they should stop everybody. If there is real danger of an attack then the safest way to stop attacks is to watch out for everyone. If we watch out for a certain group then we allow big gaps in security which leads to other terrorist groups committing the crime. we have to learn from history to never assume that one group is responsible for everything. because there is lot's of blame for terrorism to go around.

Is It Really a Win?

Canada managed to keep asbestos off the hazardous list. We in Canada don't use asbestos, because it's not safe enough for us, but we are glad to continue to export this material to India where we assume it's being used "properly". We are one of the only western nations to continue to sell it to other countries. We were the only western nation to push to keep the hazardous product off the list of dangers chemicals. The Marc Garneau stated that there is no way too know at all if the product will be used safely.

"This minister knows full well that it's very difficult to use chrysotile in the proper working conditions. The procedures, the training, the complex equipment to use it in a safe way so that fibres aren't accidentally breathed in," Garneau said.

Minister Paradis continues to say that Asbestos can be used properly with no risk, but again doesn't respond to the possibility as Garneau stated that there is no way too know if it is being used properly in under developed countries that don't have the equipment to use the chemical responsibly.

Read more here 

The "Page" Was Out Of Line!

In our democracy we are allowed to have opinions, and I encourage all those who have opinions to express them. I do on the other hand am against a page who works for the government voicing her opinion. She may have a political opinion and i would be happy to hear it, but disturbing the senate isn't the way to do it. It is not her job as an employee of the Government to voice her opinion, but if she wants she can make it her duty to voice her opinion to the world by starting I don't know a Blog!!!! I would be happy to read it, but unfortunately she decided to voice her opinion in the wrong way. What she did rather than pointing to Harper's mistakes she rather deflected it to her, and it is a shame. A true shame that people feel that the only way to be heard is to do something crazy like this. She made the issue of the day not Harper's policy on the economy, environment or the deficit. She made the issue of the day herself. She didn't support her cause she destroyed her cause. I don't think we should be supporting people to voice their opinion this way. Even Green party leader Elisabeth May agrees.

"I sympathize enormously with youth in this country who feel they've been abandoned when the single greatest threat to their future isn't mentioned in the speech from the throne, and that, of course, is the climate crisis."

 Read more Here

Tories Muzzle Voters

The Tories do not want you to vote. In fact, they will go as far as trying to declare your vote null and void. This was demonstrated this week when the Conservatives wrote Elections Canada to have advanced votes from University of Guelph students not allowed.

The Tories' argument is that the voting station was not authorized and therefore, the votes should not be allowed. They're right, but why should students be penalized for mistakes made by the officer in charge. They were just trying to get a better chance of winning the riding by annulling 700 votes by students who would most likely vote Liberal or NDP. It is not right to be doing this and even they realize it. After they made their initial complaint, Guy Giorno then said that it was OK to let the votes through.

THORNHILL—All party leaders are urging voters — especially young voters — to turn out in droves to cast a ballot on May 2. 

But only one party appears to have an interest in driving down the participation of 18-to-24-year-olds in this campaign, says an expert on youth voting patterns. And now the Conservative Party is facing an allegation of election tampering after trying to have 700 votes cast by students earlier this week at the University of Guelph declared null and void.

Read more at the Toronto Star.

Related articles

• Ignatieff hammers Tories for challenging Guelph student ballot (theglobeandmail.com)
• Tories want U of Guelph votes discounted (macleans.ca)

It's "Normal" not to be Treated Equally

Larry Smith, the Conservative candidate for Lac-Saint-Louis has no chance at winning whatsoever. Maybe that's why he said that it's "normal" for Tory ridings to receive more cash than other ridings. This is called pork-barrel spending. Bringing money to purely Conservative ridings. Unfortunately, that is all true. The Tories used the G8/G20 double summit as an excuse to send money to Tony Clement's riding for no good reason. Larry Smith thinks it's "normal" not to be treated equally. It's time to send a wake-up call to the Conservatives and boot them out of government.

It is "normal" for Conservative ridings to receive more cash from Ottawa than those with opposition MPs, a high-profile Tory candidate in Quebec said Thursday. 

Larry Smith, a former CFL commissioner now running for the Conservatives in Montreal, said it is part of the political process for governments to be favourable to their supporters.

Read more at CBC.

Related articles

• Larry Smith, Quote Machine (macleans.ca)
• Tory policies unpopular in Montreal riding: Liberals (ctv.ca)

Stop Spying on Us!

The Liberal Party has released two slick videos (English and French) on how the Conservatives kicked people out of their rallies. Stephen Harper has apologized for doing this, but there is more to this issue. The reason why students were kicked out of his rally is Facebook monitoring. The Tories screened people's Facebook pages and saw that they had pictures with Michael Ignatieff, Jack Layton or a member of another federal party. This characterizes the attitude towards Canadians. It is not right to spy on us.

Related articles

• Harper apologizes for campaign-rally ejections (theglobeandmail.com)
• Election 2011: Strong leaders don't hide from young voters (fullcomment.nationalpost.com)

Tories Copy Again

The latest Tory ad came out yesterday. This tries to portray Stephen Harper as a great leader. Thankfully for the Liberals, we can compare this with a Tea Party governor ad. It seems strikingly similar. This also reminded me of a video the Liberals put out three years ago, during the 2008 election. The earlier video compares Harper's speech in favor of sending Canadian troops to Iraq to John Howard's speech. Here are the two videos.

Related articles

• Tories accused of following Tea Partier's script in triumphant new ad (theglobeandmail.com)

The Conservative Campaign of Control

Was this really necessary? Stephen Harper has taken another step in his campaign to control everything. On Sunday, a woman was booted out of a rally for the Tories because she had "ties" to the Liberal Party. By this, the Conservatives meant that this political science student had a Facebook photo with Michael Ignatieff.

The actual action of kicking someone out doesn't make any sense, but why in the first place were the Conservatives screening the Facebook page of people attending their rallies. Some would call it a fair security measure. I call it intrusive and some would go as far as to call it spying. Stephen Harper is trying to run a perfect campaign and this is a gaffe that happens when the need to control everything gets out of hand. I predict that it will be this control-campaign by Stephen Harper and the open campaign by Michael Ignatieff that will be the defeat of Harper's majority hopes.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff is accusing Conservative Leader Stephen Harper of performing more rigorous background checks on people showing up at his campaign events than advisers he hires in the Prime Minister's Office. 

Ignatieff's verbal jab at Harper comes after reports the Conservatives threw two university students out of a Conservative rally in London, Ont., on the weekend.

Read more at CBC.

Related articles

• Stephen Harper's own private audience (II) (macleans.ca)
• Ejections at campaign rallies a ‘staff’ issue, Harper says (theglobeandmail.com)

May not in Debate!

The Networks have made a terrible choice, by not including Elisabeth May in the Campaign. The Green party last election got 7% of the vote almost 1 million people voted for them. The Green Party was in the debate's last election and Elisabeth did great. How can the Networks say that The Greens aren't important enough , because they don't have a seat in the election. In our democracy of FPTP it is theoretically possible for a party to place second in every riding have the most votes nationally and not have any seats. The Green party is important and shouldn't be ignored. The Green party is a quickly growing party, and the more we ignore the party the stronger it grows. Take 2008 when Elisabeth found out she was not allowed in the debates the Green party got 100,000 dollars a day. It is undemocratic to allow the Bloc who got 10% of the vote and is a regional party and not allow the party that is national and almost got 1 million votes. It is unfair. The Green party should 100% be allowed I hope the other party leaders will agree to allowing Elisabeth May in the Debate. She not only adds to the debate, but she also is a the only candidate there that will represent the people who voted for her party in 2008. I am not saying just any party should be allowed in the debate, but if a party gets substantial amount of the vote like 2% nationally where that political party gets funding from the government they should be allowed in the debate.

Sign this petition and send a message to the media to include the Green Party Here

Attacks Just Got More Personal

It wasn't enough to attack his background. No, it wasn't even enough, attacking statements said in some past year or even taking the word "yes" out of context. The Conservatives have just brought the never-ending attacks to a whole new level; attacking Michael Ignatieff's family. They have come out contradicting this recent video, saying that Ignatieff's family was actually quite rich when they immigrated to Canada.



The Tories obviously think that they know better than Michael Ignatieff himself or they would not have posted this attack. This is just sickening. Bring on the election!

Related articles

• Would Tories use an Ignatieff clip out of context? ‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’ (theglobeandmail.com)
• 'Canadians got to ask themselves is this the kind of politics you want?' (macleans.ca)

$28B for Jets

As normal, the Conservative government has something to hide. According to Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page, the cost for the F-35 fighters will be about 28 billion dollars. That's just a lot higher than the Tories "estimate" of $9 billion. Here we find that the Tories are once again keeping secrets. Actually, that's a euphemism. Let me put it this way: they are lying. This is a lie that could affect Canadians for decades and we are talking about many billions of dollars. It's not fair to Canada for the Tories to keep lying like this.

OTTAWA — The federal government has grossly underestimated the cost of the F-35 fighter jet deal, according to a newly released report that suggests the controversial purchase will be nearly twice as much as initially thought. 

The report, by Canada's parliamentary budget officer, pegs the total cost of the stealth fighters over a period of 30 years, at more than $29 billion U.S. ($28.5 billion Cdn).

Read more at the Ottawa Citizen.

Related articles

• Fighter-jet price tag will approach $30-billion, budget watchdog warns (theglobeandmail.com)
• Fighter jet costs soar, budget watchdog estimates (thestar.com)

Bloc Against Multicuturelism!

On Wednesday the Parti Quebecois put a vote in the national assembly to ban the Kirpan in the national assembly. The Liberals and the ADQ voted in favor of this. This is crazy Canada is a multicultural country that believes in tolerance and Quebec is no exception. The kirpan must be allowed it is not a weapon it is a religious symbol I was very glad that Micheal Ignatieff went for the freedom of religion. It is a religious symbol that should be allowed in all public area like the national assembly. The Bloc Quebecois and the Parti Quebecois and even I regret to hear the Liberals of Quebec are against multiculturalism. These sort of policies tell immigrants that they aren't welcome in our free democratic country. This decision must be reversed and I think all the leaders of the Political parties should apologize to the people who live and pay taxes like any other Quebecer, and should have the same freedom as any other person.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2011/02/09/pq-kirpan-measure.html

GOP Wants to Spend to Discriminate.

Many Republicans are just plane hypocrites. Many Republicans want to reestablish the don't ask don't tell policy. The Don't ask don't tell policy cost tax payers almost 200 million dollars over the past 6 years. The policy has been in place for more than a decade, and some Republicans want to increase the deficit in order to continue to discriminate against Homosexuals. It's stupid and silly for the so called less Gov party to take taxes from people who might like the same sex and use that money to discriminate against the same people they take the tax from. Then the scream and shout at Obama for increasing the deficit. The Republicans promised that they would cut the deficit, but so far some of there proposals would increase it. Like the Health care bill and reinstating don't ask don't tell.

Read more here

No More Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Yesterday, the United States Senate voted to kill the ban on gays and lesbians openly serving in the military. It was basically a government-sponsored discrimination. This law should have been gone long before the end of 2010 and now, it finally is. These people who risk their lives for their country should not have to hide who they are, as Senator Ron Wyden said,

“I don’t care who you love,” Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, said as the debate opened. “If you love this country enough to risk your life for it, you shouldn’t have to hide who you are.”

I still cannot believe some of the opposition arguments. Apparently, repealing this policy will harm the battle effectiveness of the military. It mocks itself! Fourteen thousand soldiers had to leave the army because of this policy. I do not see how a loss of this many people can be effective. It's really amazing how much Republicans will do to try to stop discrimination. Some even hinted that they might block an arms treaty with Russia. The US has finally joined the many other countries, some not as rich as it, that allow gays to serve openly in the military. Congratulations!

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Saturday struck down the ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly in the military, bringing to a close a 17-year struggle over a policy that forced thousands of Americans from the ranks and caused others to keep secret their sexual orientation.

Read more at the New York Times.

Related articles

• 'Don't ask, don't tell' cloture vote passes (boston.com)
• US Senate votes to allow openly gay soldiers in US military (guardian.co.uk)

Millianaires before Soliders.

A vote to start debating on whether gay people should be allowed to serve openly in the military was stopped by the Republicans in the senate. In fact some were actually in agreement that gay people should have the right to openly serve, but they think it's more important to make sure the millionaires in the U.S get to keep there tax cuts that the U.S can't afford. Oh yes the old Republican value respect our millionaires then our troops. Some Republicans believe that it is more important to keep the U.S in debt then to stop the injustice that gay people can't serve openly in the military. The U.S is so far behind when it comes to equality. Many other countries allow gay people to openly serve. Here is a list Albania, Argentine, Austria, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, U.K and Uruguay. Here is a list of Countries that the U.S is following: Brazil, Cuba, China, Egypt, Greece, Iran, Jamaica, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea, Syria, Turkey, Venezuela and Yemen.

Obama why repeal what you support.

The courts of the U.S have the control to abolish laws that are unconstitutional. One of which was the don't ask don't tell policy that Obama wants gone. A court has stated and ruled that the current policy that denies Homosexuals isn't constitutional. Then Obama who I thought supported the repeal of this law is calling for an appeal. This appeal should be stooped the terrible policy of don't ask don't tell is gone, and Obama wants to stop the ruling to say that the congress should abolish the law. Obama if the congress was that good with repealing this law than maybe it would not have to go to the courts, but Obama the senate vote was 57 yea 41 nay and even though that is a majority it isn't enough to repeal the law. Obama should be celebrating this ruling and congratulating how the courts did there duty of differentiating the constitutional and the non constitutional.It is time to stop the discrimination let the policy go Obama.

Read more here

Out of the Mirage

The United Arab Emirates have decided to kick Canada out of Camp Mirage, a stopover point for Canadian troops going in and out of Afghanistan. After no agreement was made on the issue UAE decided to ban Defence Minister MacKay and General Natynczyk from ever flying through UAE airspace. This is an insult towards our country. It's not like the minister poses a threat to their country. This act will just cause more tension between the two countries.

However, as a Liberal MP suggested, there might be a last minute solution. Canada should persuade UAE to accept a "six-month cooling-off period." After tempers on both sides have cooled down, we could enter negotiations without hot heads. The government should try really hard to keep this base.

The United Arab Emirates abruptly ended years of collaboration with the Canadian Forces on Monday, forbidding Defence Minister Peter MacKay and his top general from even flying over the country on a return trip from Afghanistan.

The public rebuke flowed from a spat over Canadian landing rights for airlines based in the Gulf and will complicate the Canadian Forces’ exit from Afghanistan next year, officials and experts said.

Read more at the Globe and Mail.

Related articles

• Canada troops to leave UAE base (bbc.co.uk)
• Canadian military leaving Dubai base: MacKay (thestar.com)