Recently, a woman from Owosso, Michigan, was invited by friends to spend 3 days at their home not far away in Clinton, Ontario - at her friends' expense.
An international boundary should have been no major obstacle to this outing. But it turns out the woman had been receiving government benefits because she was low-income.
So Canadian customs agents launched class-charged tirades before turning her away at the border. This happened twice in the same weekend.
Canadian border authorities cited a new policy by the Harper regime that forbids foreigners who get assistance from entering.
Granted, no foreigner has an automatic right to enter a country where they are not a citizen. But since conservatives keep defending Michael Savage's so-called "right" to enter Britain after his hateful harangues, where are they now?
Where are the "free trade" thought guardians who think there should be no trade restrictions between countries? How can they support unfettered trade while not defending the movement of an innocent person trying to visit friends?
Is it because they're lying shitsack hypocrites? Why, yes, as a matter of fact, it is.
What about the Harper regime's policy itself? The right to be free from such economic discrimination isn't limited only to countries that write such a right into law. This right is a natural right, and it is universal and applies to everyone regardless of country. No regime gets to ignore this right, any more than they get to say 2 plus 2 is 5.
Stephen Harper of course has already taken the unprecedented step of dissolving Parliament because it refused to reinstall him as Prime Minister. That's exactly like if the elder Bush had dissolved Congress because he lost the 1992 election.
The response by the U.S. government to the recent border incident should be severe. There should be tough sanctions against any foreign government that treats U.S. citizens in the manner the Michigan woman was treated. Stephen Harper is worse than Fidel Castro, by far.
In the meantime, the Harper regime isn't getting a penny of my tourist dollars. So it looks like I'll be leaving my royalty check stubs at home.
(Source: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/05/07/9380031-sun.html)
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Right-wing meanness launches international incident
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But Fidel Castro jails political opponents and kills them. Surely that's worse than an elected leader dissolving parliament, something that is well within his constitutional power.
ReplyDeleteDissolving Parliament is not within Harper's constitutional power.
ReplyDeleteFrom Wikipedia:
ReplyDelete"The Canadian prime minister serves at Her Majesty's pleasure, meaning the post does not have a fixed term; once appointed and sworn in by the governor general, the prime minister remains in office until he or she resigns, is dismissed, or dies.[11] The lifespan of parliament is limited by the constitution to five years, and, after 2007, by the Canada Elections Act to four years, though the governor general may still, on the advice of the prime minister, dissolve parliament and issue the writs of election prior to the expiry of four years; the King-Byng Affair was the only time since Confederation that the viceroy deemed it necessary to refuse his prime minister's request for a general vote."
Harper can advise the Governor-General to dissolve Parliament, the Governor-General as representative of the Crown can do that. Just because he took Harper's advice that doesn't make him a dictator.
Besides, the Castro brothers have murdered people, and there isn't any check on their power at all, let alone a parliament.
Nowhere does it say it was constitutional for Harper to dissolve Parliament. The Prime Minister is constitutionally obligated to act in the interests of the people.
ReplyDeleteBesides, one of Harper's appointees has also endorsed Julian Assange's assassination. If that's not a thugocracy, I don't know what is.
He didn't dissolve parliament, the governor-general did.
ReplyDeleteAnd you are ignoring my point. Castro has killed thousands of people. You think calling for the assasination of one guy leaking secret military information is the same as killing thousands who try to flee your country.