Will Canada have a snap election over new anti-terrorist laws and ISIS?
Big Brother is watching … There is a clear fault line between the two opposition parties, and PM Stephen Harper’s policies with regard to how to combat ISIS. The Conservatives…
ISIS
Harper’s Experiment to Wrap Canadians in "Protective Stupidity" Mission Accomplished?
The Tyee’s Murray Dobbins laments the success Stephen Harper has had, with the powerful support of a shamelessly collaborative media, at manipulating the Canadian public. Harper’s amoral political calculations about…
The Madness of King Stephen
As excuses for war go, claiming a conflict to be “noble” is really scraping the bottom of the barrel. It’s something you resort to when there’s simply nothing left to…
Iraq Debate: The Center Of Gravitas Shifts
…to Jean Chretien. Mind you, I’m not particularly set in my opinions re Canada’s contribution to the fight against ISIS. These thoughts still apply, more so, perhaps, now that the…
Bomb’Em All – Well Except the Kurds, Maybe
By now we’ve all been well steeped in the brutal excesses of ISIS – beheadings, mass executions, torture – in Middle Eastern parlance, the full nine yards. And so we’re…
Something We Are Not Supposed To Think About In The War On ISIS
The Guardian reports the following: Australian Super Hornets pulled out of an air strike on an Islamic State target in Iraq when the risk of killing civilians became too high,…
What Are We Getting Ourselves Into?
Before long the Middle East will look like a parking lot for Western jet fighters. The place will be awash in Hornets and Super Hornets, F-16s, F-22s, Eurofighters and Rafales…
Some Critical Thinking About The War Against ISIS
Contrary to what governments want their citizens to do, that is precisely what the following Star letter-writers are engaging in as they ask the right questions and point out what…
Principled Abstention: Why Liberal MP Irwin Cotler Abstained From Iraq War Vote
Did Liberal MP Irwin Cotler rebel against party leader Justin Trudeau when he abstained from Tuesday’s House of Commons vote on Harper’s decision to drag Canada into an unwinnable military…
The Harper Regime: 90 Pound Weaklings When It Comes To Heavy Lifting
As I indicated in yesterday’s post, the Harper Conservatives seem very selective in ‘standing up for the vulnerable’; they just don’t seem to have what it takes to do the…
The Curious Case Of Conservative Compassion
Some would say that the Harper regime’s justification for its decision to commit militarily to the fight against ISIS was patriotic and stirring: Said John Baird: “My Canada heeds the…
Ten Questions about the Harper Government’s embrace of war with ISIS-ISIL-IS
Ready, Aye, Ready! Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird whips up the War Party in the House of Commons. Below: Stephen Harper, the prime minister, and Edmonton Centre MP Laurie Hawn.…
Trudeau “cannot and will not” support Harper’s Iraq war motion
Responding to Harper’s Iraq war motion, introduced Friday, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said his party “cannot and will not support this Prime Minister’s motion.” The post Trudeau “cannot and will…
Be Careful What You Wish For
Despite the polls currently showing majority support for Canada’s joining in the war against ISIS, the Prime Minister may find that its enthusiasm for such futile adventurism is short-lived. Perhaps,…
Elizabeth May Responds To Harper’s Iraq War Motion
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May agrees with Harper that “Canada cannot stand on the sidelines,” but warns that “bombings have never ended an Islamic or any religious extremist terrorist threat.”…
Steve, I Don’t Know How to Tell You This. Bombing Isn’t Working.
That didn’t take long. Iraqi Kurds report that ISIS has changed tactics to blunt the impact of allied air strikes. Who, aside from just about anybody, could have foreseen that…
Justin, Tommy – Here’s Your Talking Points
Look, if you can’t nail Harper on this ISIS business, you’re not fit to govern anything much less our country. What you need to do is pry the lid off…
The Closer You Look …
The closer one looks at the ISIS thing, the more it starts looking like a sectarian war in the Middle East. Yesterday in the Globe and Mail, Robert Fowler very…
Penetrating The Fog Of War
Yesterday, in response to a picture I posted quoting Herman Goering on the ease with which people can be manipulated into war, Scotian, a frequent commentator, responded to the picture,…
Harper Speech Announces Canada’s Air Strikes Against ISIS
Here’s an unedited text of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s speech in the House of Commons on Friday, announcing Canada’s air strikes against ISIS in Iraq. The post Harper Speech Announces…