Start at the 1:40 mark to see what I mean. To whet your appetite, here are some viewer comments: What an awesome way to drop that Saudi Arabia thing. Hasan’s show just keeps getting better and better. The look on his face after that question! He thought they were gonna
Continue readingTag: saudi arms deal
Politics and its Discontents: On Canadian Hypocrisy
While many (but not our strangely silent allies) have cheered Canada’s tweet critical of Saudi Arabia’s abuse of human rights’ activists, it has not escaped others that the gesture has the stench of hypocrisy about it. The Star’s Tony Burman reminds us: that it was this Liberal government that approved
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Blood On Our Hands
As Canadians, we like to walk around feeling good about ourselves, convinced both of our good intentions and our innate rectitude. Ours is a generally peaceful society, the rule of law largely respected. We look to the violent domestic madness that is an undeniable part of the U.S., and we
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Who Do You Trust?
When it comes to a choice between believing a government with a vested interest in protecting a $15 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia and independent reports that those armaments are being used against domestic populations, I tend to side with the later. Consider the evidence.The Saudi Arabian National Guard,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Trudeau Town Halls: Baubles Of Distraction, Not Questions Of Substance
Prime-Minister-For-A-Day Kim Campbell is probably best remembered for saying, “An election is no time to discuss serious issues.” She might just as well have been talking about town halls, particularly the kind our Prime Minister is currently in the midst of. Justin Trudeau’s meet-and-greet will undoubtedly constitute a public-relations success.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Will This Saudi ‘Explanation’ Give Freeland And Trudeau The Cover They Desperately Seek?
As I recently wrote, I am very doubtful that the Trudeau government will rescind its $15 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, damning evidence of the Saudi deployment of the weaponry against their own people notwithstanding. It is my suspicion that both Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Outrage Grows
I suspect that, if they had their druthers, both Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and her boss, Justin Trudeau, would much prefer that we trust their administration to always do the right thing and just go on enjoying the always-too short days of summer. But the electorate can be fickle,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: On Cheap Talk And Photo-Ops
In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible.-George Orwell Regarding the misuse by the Saudis of armoured vehicles Canada sold them, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says all the right words. She says … she’s “deeply concerned” about recent videos that appear to show
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Will It Be All Talk And No Action?
There will always be those who see Justin Trudeau only through the public image he has so assiduously cultivated. Others, however, refuse to suspend their critical faculties despite the Prime Minister’s fine hair, sunny rhetoric and public earnestness. They demand that his ‘sunny ways’ be met with the kinds of
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Are The Changes Only Cosmetic?
Despite unpromising predictions, Justin Trudeau led his party to overwhelming victory close to a year ago. And like political prisoners held captive by a foul and reactionary regime, Canadians began immediately basking in the freedom they were so long …
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Miserable Mound of Bigotry Comes After Me Again
The other day I wrote a post criticizing Stephen Harper for negotiating a deal to sell armoured cars to Saudi Arabia, that includes a multi-billion dollar cancellation penalty. And I thought it was clear enough.Only to have the miserable Mound of Sou…
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Now We Know Why the Liberals Don’t Want to Scrap the Saudi Deal
Well it's taken a while, but now we know why the Liberal government is so reluctant to scrap the deal to sell armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia.Not just because it would cost thousands of jobs, in an area of Canada which has been ravaged by the co…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: This Looks About Right
H/t Graeme MacKayRecommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Saudis’ Assurances Are Worth Nothing, As Trudeau Well Knows
The Trudeau government is adamant about seeing through the $15 billion sale of armoured vehicles to human rights’ suppressor Saudi Arabia, trying to hide behind assurances given that they will not be used against its civilian population. That, of cours…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Morally Weak, Intellectually Contemptuous
That’s how I regard the justifications for continuing with the Saudi arms deal offered by Stephane Dion and his puppet master, Justin Trudeau. I see I am not alone in that assessment: Re: Approval of Saudi arms deal was illegal, lawyer argues, April 22…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Rationalizations: The Slippery Slope To Hell?*
In response to a recent post on the Liberals’ refusal to re-examine the $15 billion arms deal originally struck by the Harper regime with the repressive human-rights violator Saudi Arabia, an anonymous commentator wrote:Who will tell the 5,000 workers …
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Play The New Liberal Game
I believe it is called bloodshed for dollars.Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Outrage Continues
In the weekend Star, Tony Burman gave five reasons that Canada should cancel the Saudi arms deal, an immoral agreement which the Trudeau government refuses to budge on. I will simply give the headings of his arguments here:1. Canadians oppose it2. Cana…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: This Needs Little Comment
H/t Toronto StarI do hope all of the equipment Trudeau is selling to the Saudis is stainless steel. You know how difficult it is to remove blood splatter.Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: How Will Dion Justify This?
Given the ongoing contention surrounding Canada’s decision to sell $15 billion worth of armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia, one wonders what sort of dance moves Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion will engage in to explain his government’s ongoing su…
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