Embracing senility

There were a couple of items I intended to write about today. Andrew Bennett had an op-ed in the Globe and Mail. If that name doesn't quite ring a bell, he was Canada's first and last Commissar of Religious Freedom. Plucked from the obscurity of a Christian College with about 12 students, Harper installed him in this made up post, which was cancelled not long after Justin became PM. I had a lot of fun with that at the time. It seemed to fit the modus operandi of Big Steve's Alliance Church crowd, which in my mind is the kissing cousin to the "Christian fascists" Chris Hedges thinks are taking over America. So you can see, I had some serious shit to gnaw on. Then I stepped out on the stoop for a breath of fresh air, and got totally distracted by the buzzards soaring on the air currents overhead. I'd much rather do that than research Christian fascists. So I did. For hours. We've got a bit of dementia showing up here and there in the family tree. The low-hanging fruit on that tree were smitten before they were the age I am now, which gives me hope. Then again, there's ample gluten allergy in that tree too, which I never felt would ever impact me, so you never know. Bennett, who apparently merits an op-ed where I'm lucky to get a letter to the editor published once in awhile, has his shorts in a twist over the recommendations of the National Defence Advisory Panel on Systemic Racism and Discrimination. I know. Now I gotta read up on that when I could be watching turkey vultures soaring on the thermals. That panel was the brain wave of the wokelings in the Trudeau cabinet, and our turban-sporting Minister of Defence was the point dude. Nothing against turban's per se, but in Sajjan's case it just seemed like cover for an almost inconcievable level of ineptitude. I generally have high regard for Sikhs, but this clown was an embarrasment to the tribe. So they strike this four-person panel to investigate systemic racism and discrimination in the Canadian Armed Forces. This next part sounds like the set-up for a joke, but the panel, all CAF vets, consist of a Native dude, a Native lesbian, a career feminist activist, and a Jew. And then they walked into a bar... You can see why I'd rather watch vultures soaring. You can see why I'd rather embrace senility than spend one more precious moment of my time on this earth researching the thoughts and motivations of the kind of people who seem to have taken over the public space.

Canada will continue to condemn all religiously motivated attacks

That's a quote from Andrew Bennett, the littlest dog at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Maternal Health, Mineral Extraction, Mining Affairs, Human Development, and Foreign Aid. Usually it's just the Big Dog, John Baird, who gets to append his name to the stink-bombs flying out of Foreign Affairs HQ.

Bennett, who was allegedly Dean or Rector or Principal or Provost or President of some private Christian College with an enrollment of four or five, (as in four or five, not forty or fifty or four or five hundreds, or, heaven help us, thousands!) was hand-picked by Big Steve to guide the newly-created "Religious Freedom" portfolio through the treacherous shoals of participatory democracy.

The Big Dog keeps him on such a short leash we've hardly had a chance to get to know him!

Maybe he too bristles at the thought of yet another undiplomatic stink-bomb, especially if he has to attach his name to it.

But that's what we do best here in the Confederation of Condemnation.

Screw the veterans, slash defence spending, commit unknown and unknowable billions to the pig that can't fly, but talk the biggest toughest game on the world stage.

By the way, if you scrutinize that title real close, ("critical thinking", I think it's called...) you'll realize that what the Canuck Condemnation Crew is really saying is, "thumbs up for attacking those ______________________________  (fill in the blank), and we appreciate all attacks on pinkos, liberals, leftists, marxists, leninists, stalinists, socialists, environmentalists, and, especially, Islamists, just so long as your attacks are not "religiously motivated".

Canada's mysterious silence on human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia

A Saudi court sentenced Raif Badawi to 1,000 lashes and ten years in prison last week. His crime was starting a web-site that invited open debate about politics and religion.

I've been eagerly clicking on the website of the Department of Foreign Affairs, waiting for the Minister to announce his alarm or condemnation or at least the fact that he is appalled. And even if the matter is too trifling for Mr. Baird himself to comment on, perhaps a few words from the very junior Minister of Religious Freedom, Andrew Bennett, might be appropriate?

Alas, this gross violation of human rights and religious freedom has gone completely unnoticed by Ottawa. In fact, you'd have to go all the back to February to find a mention of Saudi Arabia in the daily press releases from Foreign Affairs. Here it is;

Largest Advanced Manufacturing Export Win in Canada’s History

Manufacturing sector workers and firms to benefit from creation of thousands of jobs across southern Ontario and every region of Canada

February 14, 2014 - London, Ontario - Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada

The Honourable Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade, and Danny Deep, Vice President, General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada, announced today a historic multi-billion dollar contract win for vehicles and associated equipment, training and support services.

The announcement was made in London, Ontario, where the light armoured vehicles will be designed and manufactured and which will become the epicentre of a cross-Canada supply chain directly benefiting more than 500 local Canadian firms.

This 14-year contract will create and sustain more than 3,000 jobs each year in Canada, with southern Ontario accounting for approximately 40 percent of the supply base.

Facilitated by the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC), the Government of Canada’s international government-to-government contracting organization, the contract is with Saudi Arabia, a priority market under the government’s new Global Markets Action Plan.

Mystery solved! A "historic multi-billion dollar contract" was signed last February for Canada to provide thousands of armoured cars to the Saudi military! Ironically, that was also the month that our friends in Riyadh officially made criticism of their rule a terrorism offence!

Note how any mention of Saudi Arabia is limited to a single reference in the last sentence. Note also that the Harper gang considers Saudi a "priority market".

I guess we can stop looking to John Baird or Andrew Bennett for any expression of outrage or alarm over the Raif Badawi travesty.

Canada plunks down a cool million to secure religious freedom in Pakistan

I certainly don't begrudge Andrew Bennett his job. Plucked out of the obscurity of running a "private Christian college" with five or six students, Bennett was thrust into the newly created "Minister of Religious Freedom" portfolio because Big Steve met him at a church function and he seemed like a nice enough guy.

Bennett has since then been forced to endure a series of inevitably trite announcements about what great things he is doing in his imaginary job.

His latest great thing is lobbying for religious freedom in Pakistan.

Pakistan is a multi-faith and multi-cultural country much like Canada, don't you know, and if it wasn't for those pesky extremists Karachi could be just like Brampton...

So Bennett has announced that Canada is donating a million dollars to further religious freedom in Pakistan. That translates into about a half a cent per Pakistani, and is slightly less than the amount Big Steve paid to have his armoured limos shipped to India last year for a three day visit.

Hmm... armoured limos... religious freedom... what the hell, we're a small country and we can't be expected to punch above our weight on every file, can we?

What to expect from Canada's new Ambassador for Religious Freedom

Lots of photo ops.

Andrew Bennett is an Ottawa insider who has for the last few years been moonlighting as "Dean" of a "small Catholic university," the five faculty, sixteen student Augustine College.

That's an institution I'd file under home schooling.

Today's announcement is in keeping with the Harper gang's rejigging of foreign aid.

Fob aid delivery off to Christian aid groups like Save the Children, and tie it to foreign ventures by Canadian mining companies.

Bennett will be working out of the office of the seriously conflicted John Baird, who can't decide between adopting Judaism as his official religion or coming out of the closet or both.

Expect lots of defamatory declarations about the lack of religious freedoms in Iran, and lots of celebratory declarations about religious freedom in Israel and Honduras and Colombia.

And lots of photo ops.