Steve Blaney - what an idiot!

What the hell is a "Public Safety Minister" anyway? Does not that title in itself imply that all the other Ministers are reckless of public safety? It reminds me of the local school board coming up with the extremely well-paid sinecure of "Superintendent of Student Success." Were all the other extremely well-paid superintendents devoting themselves to student failure?

Anyway, Blaney is deemed newsworthy today because he was busy flogging the make-Canada-a-police-state Bill C-51 in front of a Senate Committee.

Apparently we can't have prosperity without security. This is somehow proved by the fact that ten kids from Quebec were turned back last week on their mission to help Islamic State remove the evil Assad from power.

Seems to me we've got two completely distinct issues here.

Prosperity.

Security.

I remember a time when Canada enjoyed both. At the same time.

That was long before we sold our souls in dubious "free trade" agreements of course.

And long before we enjoyed the ministrations of a "Public Safety Minister."

Blaney seems to imply that today we don't have prosperity because we're not sufficiently gung-ho about applauding the latest improvements to the police state apparatus.

Not sure what place those ten Quebec teens have in the equation...

After all, they just want to help Islamic State dislodge the evil tyrant Assad from power. Both Big Steve and former FM John Baird told us time and again how important it was to finish that job.

But suddenly these teens who are voluntarily heading into theatre on their own dime to do just that are terrorists?

And the Harper gang need new security measures to keep them in check?

This simply does not add up.

World leaders converge on Paris in search of photo-ops

Charlie Hebdo is obviously much more loved in death than in life. In life, they were consistently harassed by the French state. In death, they are lionized by the French state.

And far beyond! These champions of freedom of expression have inspired a solidarity march in Paris tomorrow, that has virtually every leader in the free world clamouring to climb aboard the bandwagon!
Merkel, Cameron, Poroshenko... yes, ALL the leaders of the free world, and apparently every member of the Israeli Knesset to boot!

Thus far Canada has missed the boat on this one, designating Public Safety Minister Steve Blaney, a non-entity, to represent the country. But that was before news came out that all the top-echelon Likud crowd would be in attendance, which may yet cause a change of plans in Ottawa.

This is truly a heart-warming rally in support of freedom of speech!

But while our hearts are warm and our eyes are misty, let's not forget that as recently as last summer, the nation that now parades itself as the very womb of "freedom of expression," criminalized protest against Israel's invasion of Gaza.

Ah, but life is awash with ironies, is it not?

The fruits of freedom; a million people died so Psy could make "Gangnam Style?"

While they may not be held in quite the esteem as a bona fide European intellectual like BHL, you have to admit that some of those Harper cabinet types punch well above their weight, intellectually speaking.

Just last week we were treated to the insight that "the root cause of terrorism is terrorists."

Who knew?

The Harper gang is bent on remaking Canada as a "warrior nation," as opposed to the worrier nation we widely see ourselves as. To this end, many press releases have been issued and many millions of tax dollars spent glorifying Canada's contribution to any war that Canada, or any pre-confederation colonies, have ever contributed to.

Veteran's Affairs Minister Steve Blaney recently visited South Korea to celebrate the fact that Canadians punched above their weight in that conflict. Indeed, over 500 Canadians died in that war, or .05% of all deaths.

Yes, that would seem a modest contribution, but the Harper gang sets the bar quite low when invoking the "punching above our weight" metaphor.

Regardless of the scope of our contribution, it's good to know that it wasn't for naught; Blaney has informed us that without the struggle and sacrifice of the Korean war, the world would not have been blessed with the Psy pop-hit, "Gangnam Style" sixty years on.

Proving once again that while Canada's contribution to global conflicts has been mercifully modest, when it comes to bombastic rhetoric about that contribution, the Harper gang unequivocally punches above their weight.