Canada sweeps podium at hypocricy championships

Four stories. They're all tied together. See if you can follow the trail.

The Law and Order Party that governs Canada is made up of manly men and a few manly women who don't mind letting you know they're all about traditional values. Peace. Order. Good governance. They've got a Law and Order Bill coming down the pipeline as I write this. They're going to get tough on crime, and it's about time. Crime rates in Canada have been trending down for twenty years. If you're going to get tough on crime you'd better do it while you still have some.

Headline from a couple of years ago; "Two Canadian diplomats freed after hostage ordeal in Africa." These guys had been held hostage by al-Qaeda for months. At the time, Prime Minister Harper stated flat-out that Canada does not pay ransoms.

Headline from this week; "International concern that Canada paid ransom to al Qaeda." Oopsie. And here's another one from this week, from the national newspaper of record; "Gadhafi regime helped broker release of Canadian envoys".  Would that be that Gadhafi? Double oopsie.

Hmmm. Seems a certain Steven Harper was lying to us about that ransom business. Ironically, this last headline appeared on the same day that Canada's parliament, i.e. the Harper gang, voted to extend the Libyan bombing campaign three more months, because apparently there are still civilians there who need our protection from Gadhafi. The announcement was accompanied by the usual chest-thumping bombast about Canadian values and democracy and freedom and blah blah blah. Two years ago we were sucking up to Gadhafi. Now we're bombing the beejeezus out of him.

If this kind of nefarious back-stabbing double-dealing seems out of character for a bunch of law and order Bible-thumpers, bear in mind it is all for a greater cause. As the Globe and Mail story makes clear, our main concern in all matters Libyan is to protect Canada's huge commercial interests in Libyan oil and gas. Ahh.. now it all makes sense. Goodbye Gadhafi, hello NTC.

But it's all about our democratic values.