By: Hussein Mohamed
In January 2006 Canadians elected Stephen Harper Prime Minister, the first conservative prime minister in 13 years. The liberal party lost the confidence of the people due to the sponsorship scandal that would in the later years linger and contribute to the party’s demise. Harper promised to get Canada’s fiscal house in order and create jobs and pass a budget plan that would help our economy. Canadian troops were already in Afghanistan assisting the U.S on the war on terror but, Harper’s intention was to have our troops control and commit to controlling southern Afghanistan mainly Kandahar, one of the most dangerous city in the world. With Canadian troops there all alone to control, our troops fought terrorism with bravery to allow the Afghan people to be free from tyranny and give them freedom and equality. With a great amount of troops on the ground fighting a defiant Al-Qaeda, 157 of our troops were killed including 4 civilians, 1 diplomat, and 1journalist. Their sacrifice will be remembered forever but, what we will also remember is the torture scandal that rocked parliament. Liberal and NDP critics blasted the prime minister claiming that he was hiding Afghan torture memos that gave the green light for Canadian troops to torture detainees in Afghan prisons in Kandahar. The memos, much like the ones George W. Bush destroyed were detailed accounts of soldiers water boarding and using “enhanced interrogation methods”. Torture of course is illegal under Canadian law, international law, and the Geneva conventions act. Harper said the allegations were baseless and partisan and that the memos will be handed to a federal judge who would review whether the defence minister and the prime minster broke laws to get detainees to give up information that could be used to capture terrorist cells. The memos had not been handed to the Judge in full not to mention it was highly redacted. The other parties decided not to pursue because the polls suggested that the Canadian public were not going to vote for the other parities if they focused on the memos instead of fixing the economy at home and lowering unemployment. Harper shut down parliament during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics because of political pressure. Once Ottawa reopened, party leaders focused on getting ready for the 2011 federal election. Harper painted Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff as liar who will raise taxes on people and ruin the country. They painted the Bloc leader as a divider who will only look out for Quebec’s interests. They painted the NDP leader as someone who doesn’t know how to fix the economy and will spend billions of dollars on programs that Canadians can’t afford to pay for. It worked and Harper won a majority government. The conservatives acquired 166 seats, the NDP 103, the liberals a disappointing 34 essentially switching places with the NDP losing the opposition status, and the Bloc gained a total of 4 seats. The new parliament was seated last month and now these new members will run our government with the objectives of balancing the budget and creating jobs. If we as Canadians don’t succumb to the tricks of this conservative government, we have an opportunity to go after the memos and bring this to light because it’s the right thing to do. We can’t ever forget what was done in Kandahar. Canadians don’t want to use our military as a body that tortures people. We spend $7 billion a year in Afghanistan to fight terrorism; the Canadian press must do their jobs as a government watchdog and pursue this until we learn the facts. We must send a message to the world that we are not the United States, we are better than them and that we only use our military for good not evil. More importantly we need to send a message to Harper that we will not stand for cover-ups and corruption and that he and his government will be accountable for their actions. I think the other party leaders understand that now that Harper has a majority government they’re will to pursue this is more important than their political goals to gain more power in Ottawa. If the NDP want Jack Layton or another NDP leader to be elected as PM they must first allow Harper to govern. Let us, the people at the grassroots level tell you when it’s time for an election. Attacking Harper in parliament 3 on 1 is not going to do anything but make Harper look innocent. Instead allow him to lead on all federal matters and work with them to meet their goals. If they fail, which they will, that is when you attack. That is how you win in politics; make Harper take responsibility for a failed economy and high unemployment. I’m not saying that we can’t get positive bills passed or progress but that it’s highly unlikely to happen. If the conservatives could persuade the country for more power under these circumstances both fiscally and socially. Then we the people must be smarter than our American counterparts and realize what 8 years of conservative rule did for the United States. Things have gotten worse under Harper and we can’t let him destroy our values. If the other parties can’t comprehend how to take him down politically then we can and we will, it’s happened before and it can happen again. We have something the politicians don’t have, the news media. If Canadians paid attention to political news as much as hockey and in turn demanded the press to be better, Harper would have lost the election at best, at worst kept a minority government. Harper knows as long as he can keep it 3 on 1 he will always win in the end. When Harper wins we all lose except the banks, oil companies, billionaires and millionaires. They don’t lose, they win big. I’m not okay with that, I want to see progress for the middle class; I want to see investments in education and infrastructure. We have to tell Harper you may have won the election but we want progress for the middle class, and we demand to see the memos and we aren’t going anywhere.
In January 2006 Canadians elected Stephen Harper Prime Minister, the first conservative prime minister in 13 years. The liberal party lost the confidence of the people due to the sponsorship scandal that would in the later years linger and contribute to the party’s demise. Harper promised to get Canada’s fiscal house in order and create jobs and pass a budget plan that would help our economy. Canadian troops were already in Afghanistan assisting the U.S on the war on terror but, Harper’s intention was to have our troops control and commit to controlling southern Afghanistan mainly Kandahar, one of the most dangerous city in the world. With Canadian troops there all alone to control, our troops fought terrorism with bravery to allow the Afghan people to be free from tyranny and give them freedom and equality. With a great amount of troops on the ground fighting a defiant Al-Qaeda, 157 of our troops were killed including 4 civilians, 1 diplomat, and 1journalist. Their sacrifice will be remembered forever but, what we will also remember is the torture scandal that rocked parliament. Liberal and NDP critics blasted the prime minister claiming that he was hiding Afghan torture memos that gave the green light for Canadian troops to torture detainees in Afghan prisons in Kandahar. The memos, much like the ones George W. Bush destroyed were detailed accounts of soldiers water boarding and using “enhanced interrogation methods”. Torture of course is illegal under Canadian law, international law, and the Geneva conventions act. Harper said the allegations were baseless and partisan and that the memos will be handed to a federal judge who would review whether the defence minister and the prime minster broke laws to get detainees to give up information that could be used to capture terrorist cells. The memos had not been handed to the Judge in full not to mention it was highly redacted. The other parties decided not to pursue because the polls suggested that the Canadian public were not going to vote for the other parities if they focused on the memos instead of fixing the economy at home and lowering unemployment. Harper shut down parliament during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics because of political pressure. Once Ottawa reopened, party leaders focused on getting ready for the 2011 federal election. Harper painted Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff as liar who will raise taxes on people and ruin the country. They painted the Bloc leader as a divider who will only look out for Quebec’s interests. They painted the NDP leader as someone who doesn’t know how to fix the economy and will spend billions of dollars on programs that Canadians can’t afford to pay for. It worked and Harper won a majority government. The conservatives acquired 166 seats, the NDP 103, the liberals a disappointing 34 essentially switching places with the NDP losing the opposition status, and the Bloc gained a total of 4 seats. The new parliament was seated last month and now these new members will run our government with the objectives of balancing the budget and creating jobs. If we as Canadians don’t succumb to the tricks of this conservative government, we have an opportunity to go after the memos and bring this to light because it’s the right thing to do. We can’t ever forget what was done in Kandahar. Canadians don’t want to use our military as a body that tortures people. We spend $7 billion a year in Afghanistan to fight terrorism; the Canadian press must do their jobs as a government watchdog and pursue this until we learn the facts. We must send a message to the world that we are not the United States, we are better than them and that we only use our military for good not evil. More importantly we need to send a message to Harper that we will not stand for cover-ups and corruption and that he and his government will be accountable for their actions. I think the other party leaders understand that now that Harper has a majority government they’re will to pursue this is more important than their political goals to gain more power in Ottawa. If the NDP want Jack Layton or another NDP leader to be elected as PM they must first allow Harper to govern. Let us, the people at the grassroots level tell you when it’s time for an election. Attacking Harper in parliament 3 on 1 is not going to do anything but make Harper look innocent. Instead allow him to lead on all federal matters and work with them to meet their goals. If they fail, which they will, that is when you attack. That is how you win in politics; make Harper take responsibility for a failed economy and high unemployment. I’m not saying that we can’t get positive bills passed or progress but that it’s highly unlikely to happen. If the conservatives could persuade the country for more power under these circumstances both fiscally and socially. Then we the people must be smarter than our American counterparts and realize what 8 years of conservative rule did for the United States. Things have gotten worse under Harper and we can’t let him destroy our values. If the other parties can’t comprehend how to take him down politically then we can and we will, it’s happened before and it can happen again. We have something the politicians don’t have, the news media. If Canadians paid attention to political news as much as hockey and in turn demanded the press to be better, Harper would have lost the election at best, at worst kept a minority government. Harper knows as long as he can keep it 3 on 1 he will always win in the end. When Harper wins we all lose except the banks, oil companies, billionaires and millionaires. They don’t lose, they win big. I’m not okay with that, I want to see progress for the middle class; I want to see investments in education and infrastructure. We have to tell Harper you may have won the election but we want progress for the middle class, and we demand to see the memos and we aren’t going anywhere.
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