Michael Ignatieff, Jean-Claude D'Amours, Ruby Dhalla, Kirsty Duncan, Marc Garneau, Albina Guarnieri, Dominic LeBlanc, Keith Martin, John McCallum, Brian Murphy, Anthony Rota, Judy Sgro, Michelle Simson, Frank Valeriote, Joe Volpe, Bryon Wilfert, and Lise Zarac,
with Lib Alan Tonks voting with the Cons against it.
Special mention goes out to Lib Frank Valeriote who was there at 6:25pm for the Criminal Acts Records vote five minutes before the vote on the war resisters bill, and who was on his feet again at 6:42 making a speech in favour of "revitalizing parliamentary proceedings through reforming question period" five minutes after it. Yet somehow Frank went awol in the middle here for conscientious objectors who don't want to fight the US war on terra.
Good job, Frank. You really want to "revitalize parliamentary proceedings"? Try showing the fuck up for what were once called liberal values. It was a Liberal bill.
Also present on Wednesday for the Criminal Acts vote but MIA five minutes later for the war resisters bill were Libs Kirsty Duncan, Brian Murphy, Judy Sgro, Joe Volpe, and Lise Zarac.
L-Girl at We Move to Canada has worked fiercely on behalf of US war resisters. She cites a letter written on Sept. 19 from a former head of the Immigration and Refugee Board to Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. In it Peter Shormer criticizes the following July 22 CIC directive concerning war resisters who claim refugee status in Canada :
"Military deserters from other countries have sought refugee protection in Canada. Desertion from the Canadian military is a serious criminal offence.What utterly bizarre logic. As per Shormer's letter to Kenney, the CIC directive goes on to specifically target US war resisters for exclusion from Canada by meddling in what should be independent case reviews by the Immigration and Refugee Board.
Therefore these deserters may also be serious criminals and therefore inadmissible to Canada."
Luckily for Kenney and the Cons and the US war on terra, this time the Leader of the Opposition and 17 more Liberals had their back.
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5 comments:
Well said!!! Bravo!!
Between this brilliant post and Dawg's Libro-Cons great rant, I think it should become patently obvious we should all burn our party cards and vote every last one of the pro-war cads out of office! They have no respect for conscientious objectors and should not be representing anybody in Parliament.
Throw the bums out, no matter which party they belong to. As of today I am party-free and will cast my ballot accordingly!
Thanks, Alison. Those who are interested in where this fight goes next, please visit wmtc, along with letthemstay.ca. Solidarity.
I'm still gobbed by the fact the AWOL deserters lose over AWOL poli's, the irony seems over the heads of the Liberals.....
You are right on. The Liberals like to portray to progressives they are the party of Trudeau. They ceased being that party when Paul Martin became Finance Minister.
The progressives have been pushed to the side and with Iggy's right wing approach to war and torture is it any wonder the Liberals so many Liberals did not show up to vote.
It was not a priority for them. I feel bad for progressive Liberals like Kennedy. They are living in the past if they think the Liberals will remember Trudeau on these issues.
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