Cracking Down on Bogus Asylum Seekers

With reports of another Tamil migrant ship on it's way, the federal government is looking for ways to target  human trafficking. and other measures to block future mass arrivals of smuggled would be refugees.

The Conservative government is working on legislation and program changes that target human smuggling following last month's arrival of the MV Sun Sea off the B.C. coast.

 Prime Minister Stephen Harper has told Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson to deal with what the government is calling "mass arrivals" of smuggled would-be refugees.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney traveled to Paris on the weekend to discuss bogus asylum seekers and human trafficking with his counterparts over  in Europe.

Canada is turning to Europe for partners in a widening fight against human trafficking and bogus asylum seekers.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney met over the weekend in Paris with counterparts from European nations that are also choice destinations, leaving with commitments to projects that could include a joint campaign to persuade unqualified migrants that they aren’t welcome. It was the first stop on a tour that includes talks with officials in India, China and the Philippines on ways to combat immigration fraud.

Ezra Levant has an idea. Encourage those bogus asylum seekers to go  to a peaceful country in Asia that has the UN seal of approval.

Great news: There is a country in Asia willing to take Sri Lankan Tamil refugees by the thousand — with the United Nations’ seal of approval.
And they’re already doing it. In the first six months of 2010, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says the generous country accepted 1,857 Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka, who had been staying temporarily in India.
UN refugee spokesman Michael Zwack says these Tamils are now “rebuilding their lives.” The UN quoted one Tamil refugee, a 39-year-old woman, who said she was pleased with her new home for a pretty good reason: “Peace.”
So where is this wonderful place that Sri Lankan refugees are going to by the thousand?
Sri Lanka.
That’s right. Thousands of Tamil refugees are returning to Sri Lanka — because it’s safe. Within Sri Lanka itself, internal refugee camps for displaced Tamils are winding down, as Tamils go back home

Meanwhile, you have those bleeding hearts out there who seem to think that the Harper government wanting to crack down on this crime is just a about the politics of fear.

The second boat of Tamil migrants couldn’t have chosen a worse time to arrive.
We were we told that these people were aliens jumping the queue and feeding off our tax system, that the Tamil Tigers are establishing a government in exile and sending more boats.
As the boat came closer, our collective intelligence was increasingly insulted. We were hysterically warned of terrorists on board. Rejecting the concept of innocence until proven guilty, the Conservatives still continue to spread these unsubstantiated allegations.
Not only does this slander those involved, it undermines the trust the public places in their government. The danger in throwing around terrorism allegations is that it opens the door to a boy-cried-wolf situation.
Harper’s efforts have largely been successful. With weak media seeking the latest sensationalized story, the Conservatives have gained support from tough-on-crime voters and the pesky Afghan torture scandal is far off the radar.
Terrorism means using fear to coerce. It seems this is exactly Harper and Sarkozy’s approach to public debate.
The Tamil migrants deserve the fair process afforded to all claiming refugee status. The Roma in France deserve concrete moves to help them assimilate into society. The Canadian and French electorates deserve governments that don’t steep to scapegoating when faced with tough questions.
While the Tamil migrant situation is less elaborate than the French expulsion of Roma people, it sets a shared and dangerous precedent. Using xenophobia as a political tool is dangerous, cowardly, and undermines democracy. I trust Canadians will be smart and courageous enough to see past the fear-mongering and focus on getting answers to our real questions.

Go figure!  I think it's about time something was done.  The sooner the better.  Canada has been way too  soft on immigration and refugees for far too long.  Let's just hope the opposition parties support this, although I'm not holding my breath.

So Who's Keeping Secrets?

Taxpayer funded Mothercorp, CBC is always hammering PM Harper and his government for keeping secrets and not being open and transparent in not releasing certain documents,Afghan detainee documents for example. They accuse the government of hiding something and demand documents to be released.
Well, Mothercorp just may be the ones with something to hide.  There have been numerous requests to Access to Information for information regarding the CBC and they refuse.

 OTTAWA - CBC may demand accountability from the government but Canada’s taxpayer-funded broadcaster is going to court once again in order to keep its own affairs secret.
The CBC will square off against the information commissioner, an independent officer of Parliament, in a Montreal courtroom on Sept. 13. After hearing from a number of sources, including Sun Media, about problems with CBC’s response to access to information requests, the commissioner subpoenaed a number of files. The CBC refused.
It’s not the first run in between the state broadcaster and the Access to Information Act. The CBC became subject to the act in 2007, since then close to 900 complaints have been filed. While some of those cases were resolved and a small number were found to be without merit, as of June the information commissioner had 498 active complaints against CBC.

Just who do they think they are?  Why are they fighting from having information released even after being subpoenaed by the information commissioner ?  They have been subject to the Access to Information Act for the last three years now. What are they afraid of?  Are they keeping secrets they don't want the taxpayers who's funding them to know?   Another case of hypocrisy?  Pot calling kettle black?  

How about if we hold back funding until they comply?  Or just not fund them at all  anymore?

Tory Majority? Or Coalition of the Losers?

We will have a choice next election whenever that may be.  We will have to choose between a Conservative majority government or a Coalition of the Losers.  That is what PM Harper is going to present to us.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is adopting a strategy to gradually persuade voters they have a "stark choice" in the next campaign: a "stable" majority Conservative government, or a "coalition" government of Liberals, New Democrats and Quebec separatists.

According to Tom Flanagan it could be a gamble though because you don't know whether it will work.

"Any time you change strategies it's a gamble because you don't know if it will work," said Flanagan.
"He has had success ... saying he'd be happy to accept whatever the voters give him. So the gamble is that, after four years of being in power, Canadians would be more open to considering a majority government. It's kind of like you've been on probation for four years."
At the same time, it appears the Conservatives believe they are on strong footing as they try to persuade Canadians a vote for the Liberals is actually a vote for a coalition.
They remember how support for Harper's Tories spiked to unprecedented levels in December 2008 when the Liberals and NDP attempted to form a coalition government with the parliamentary support of the Bloc Québécois.
"You've got to persuade people that you can't take the Liberals at face value," said Flanagan. "There's a big payoff there. Of course, if you're going to do that, it's smart to start early

Nelson Wiseman from Uof T believes a majority for PM Harper is quite possible and  within his grasp.

 Nelson Wiseman, associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto, said Tuesday that he thinks a majority is within Harper's grasp.
"They know that their best card is playing the coalition. The strategy is to trap the other parties on that hook. You don't have to convince the whole electorate. What you have to do is swing over maybe one out of 20 voters."

I personally am looking for  a Conservative majority and believer it is possible.  We as conservatives though cannot take for granted that we would get one, we need to work hard.  We need to convince all those who are sitting on the fence.  Forget the  hardcore liberals, it would be like beating your head against a brick wall and a waste of time.  We'll never win them over.

There are tough decisions that are going to have to be made on deficit reduction, immigration and security.  A Conservative majority government is the most competent and would be more stable and able to make those tough decisions  much better than a minority or a coalition of the losers.  

Don't believe what the Waffle or Jack Layton will tell you. Before and during the election they are going to tell you that there will be no coalition. Don't let them fool you. I believe the coalition of the losers has never really died. It will raise it's ugly head again if  the Conservatives don't get a majority.  Don't forget also, the Waffle signed his name on that coalition document. There's no way he can get around that. 

They are going to have to be transparent and admit from the get go whether or not they will be willing to form a coalition and not try and sneak it up on us like they did before in 2008.  If they are willing  to form a coalition after an election then they should campaign as a coalition during the campaign.  The only way to prevent the losers from taking power is to elect a Conservative majority government. 

You up for it, kids? A majority is in within reach.  Yes we can do it. Remember one in twenty is what we have to win over. It is possible. You ready?

Pot Calling Kettle Black? Re-Long Gun Registry

Michael Waffle Ignatieff says that if coalition partner, Jack Layton doesn't be a control freak and and whip his NDP members into voting against CPC MP Candice Hoeppner's Bill C-391 to scrap the long gun registy, Jack and his party have "no darn principles."

Norman Spector raises the question about who are really the ones with no "darn principals."  He nails it in the last part of his column.  

 Frankly, in light of the history of these two political parties, it’s ludicrous for any Liberal to claim advantage over the NDP when it comes to questions of principle. Whether you agree with those principles or not.
I’ve never written about the long-gun registry, and have no pony in the race over whether it survives or is abolished. However, it doesn’t surprise me that members of Jack Layton’s caucus — confronted by Conservatives playing wedge politics and rubbing their hands in glee at the reaction — would be thinking toward the next election and be trying to live up to commitments they made to the folks who sent them to Ottawa in the last one.Any more than it surprises me that Liberal MPs will say or do most anything — even on fundamental issues such as Afghanistan or the Quebecois nation where the party has some history to defend — to re-gain their “rightful” role as Canada’s natural governing party.  Whatever commitments they may have made in the past to voters.

 So who are the ones with principal?

 On this one, I think Jack Layton even though he's trying to skirt around this by proposing a phony so called comprise bill, he and his Dippers are the ones with principal if Jack keeps his word and allows a free vote, not the Waffle and the Libs.  Remember, it is the Waffle who is whipping his members to vote against even though over a half dozen voted for Bill C-391earlier.  As Norm Spector says, Liberals will do or say anything to regain power.

Outrage About Census, Less About Pro-Coercive Census, More About Anti-Harper

Gary Slywchuk from the Winnipeg Free Press says this brouhaha over the census is farcical.
He applauds the governments decision to take away the threats of fines and jail time if you don't fill out the long form census and points out there have been 8,000 stories in the news, way more than health care or the economy in which  are issues that all Canadians are concerned about.

On Aug. 11, the federal government announced its intention to, in Industry Minister Tony Clements' words, "introduce legislation this fall to remove threats of jail time for persons refusing to fill out the (2011) census and all mandatory surveys administered by the federal government."
This seemed pretty innocuous and something I personally applauded. I don't know about you, but threats aren't the greatest way to get me to do something.
But, since then, there have been more than 8,000 news stories on the census -- way more articles and commentaries than on our health-care system (just more than 1,000) and only a smidgen fewer than articles and commentaries on the economy. Come on, people, where are your priorities?

Those letters to the editor he points out are less pro-coercive but more anti-Harper.

As for the number of letters to the editor in various publications, it seems obvious, at least to me, that many of the writers were less pro-coercive census than anti-Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

I tend to agree.   If you notice, all that rhetoric has been coming from the anti-Harper, anti-Conservative minions in the media and else where.  Their MO is to find anything to slag the PM and his government about and make them look bad.  My sense is they hate this PM and this government, want them out and will do anything it takes.  It gets more pathetic everyday.

They  thought this issue would resonate with voters, it has  not much like many other issues they thought would. The fact is the general public just does not care about this issue.  What average Joe and Mary Sixpack are concerned about is jobs, economy, their kids, health care not this.