Time Immortal

The Order of Canada has been hijacked by the left, in his view.

Jason Kenney, Canada’s Secretary of State for multiculturalism, says the Order of Canada has been “hijacked by a particular political faction that is not even making an effort to be neutral.”

Kenney is one of several MPs, Conservative and Liberal, who have denounced the appointment of abortionist Henry Morgentaler to the Order of Canada.

“If any good can come of this, it’s that Canadians will demand that the Order belongs to them and not to a small elite that simply reconfirms its own prejudices,” he said.

Kenney, however, does not see this award as politically partisan, noting that some Liberal MPs have also denounced the award. Manitoba NDP Premier Gary Doer has also come out against it. Liberal Leader Stephane Dion and NDP Leader Jack Layton, however, both praised it.

Prime Minister has publicly distanced himself and his government from the process.

Personally, I think the Conservatives were a bit soft in their reponse to this appointment…but at the same time, what could they do? They don’t control the selection process, after all.

Update: Welcome, Steynians!

Jason Kenney all but flays Osgoode Hall sock puppet Khurrum Awan in this scathing letter, chastising him for his association with Mohamed Elmasry.

I’m almost tempted to wonder how long it will be before someone tries to file a human rights complaint against Mr. Kenney?

Update: Let’s see how well Scribd handles this:

Update: Welcome, Steynians!

The guy just seems to get it, as evidenced by his response to the latest outrageous decision by a Canadian HRC (this time in Quebec).

The Quebec human rights commission has asked members of the Saguenay city council to stop praying before its meetings.

In a May 15 release, the commission said the city contravened its obligation to be neutral by starting its public meetings with the recitation of a prayer.

“The members of a municipal council are the representatives of the state,” said M. Gaetan Cousineau, commission president.

“They have the right to their personal beliefs, but, during the exercise of their public functions, they do not have the right to favour or give the impression of favouring one Religion more than any other.”

But Saguenay Mayor Jean Tremblay said he had no intention of stopping the practice.

“For me, God is much more important than the commission. When I arrive on the other side, maybe in 10 years, 20 years, they won’t ask me if I follow the commission, they will ask me if I follow God,” Tremblay told CBC News May 15.

Jason Kenney, federal secretary of state for multiculturalism and Canadian identity, found the order surprising.

“Freedom of religion is a foundational principle in Canada and communities, in my view, have every right to exercise it as they see fit,” Kenney said May 15.

“Elected local politicians are accountable to their voters, not to some unaccountable commission with quasi-judicial powers that doesn’t even have due process.”

That’s the sort of hardball position that we need to see the Canadian government take, at all levels, especially from the Prime Minister’s office. ’s government enjoys a not-entirely deserved swell of popularity at the moment, against which the Liberals struggle to compete — it’s as close to an ideal time as one could possibly imagine for the government of Canada to take the human rights commissions to task, and hard.

Jason Kenney, I think, gets that. One would hope that the person occupying the PM’s office would also get that. If not, perhaps someone who does understand should be given occupancy of that office.

Update: Welcome, Steynians!

That’s Steve Janke’s (Angry’s) suggestion - send Canada’s Secretary of State for multiculturalism and Canadian Identity, Jason Kenney, to represent Canada at the Olympic Games in Beijing, since Canada does not plan to boycott the Games.

It would be a subtle yet effective way to poke China in the eye, given how very often Jason Kenney has embroiled himself in actions taken by the Canadian government that have annoyed or infuriated the Chinese government. And as a bonus, he’s usually not afraid to speak his mind.

Hon. Jason Kenney (Secretary of State (Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity), CPC): “Mr. Speaker, I am absolutely on the public record defending freedom of speech because this government and this party believe in our constitutionally entrenched and protected rights to , freedom of speech and freedom of the press and we will always defend those freedoms, those ancient freedoms.

Some uppity NDP type stood up to demand that the Conservative government vote down Bill M-446. The above is the response. Good for Mr. Kenney — it needed to be said.

Update: Welcome, Steynians!

The irony is too good to miss:

The Canadian Arab Federation has come out strongly against the Canadian government’s decision, supported by the NDP, to not participate in any way with the upcoming UN-sponsored Durban II conference on Racism. The position of the Conservative government, supported by the NDP, is that Durban II is shaping up to be an exercise in the most vile and repellent Anti-Semitism, as was experienced by the Canadian delegation that attended the Durban I conference in 2001.

The CAF has every right to take a different position. But to call Jason Kenney an Islamophobe who is contemptuous of Arabs and of Islam?

But then CAF president Khaled Mouammar, who has all sorts of links with the , declares anyone who sympathizes with Israel to be guilty complicit in war crimes.

…

Mouammar was embroiled in the Liberal Party  leadership campaign, when in an attempt to derail Bob Rae’s campaign, Mouammar was linked to the infamous “Jew flyer”:

…

In addition to targeting Bob Rae, Khaled Mouammar went after Gerard Kennedy for being too friendly to Jews:

…

Kennedy criticizes Hizbollah and Hamas, and so earns the enmity of Khaled Mouammar.

Only leadership candidates Michael Ignatieff (who declared Israeli actions during the 2006 war in Lebanon to be war crimes) and Stephane Dion were spared being called stooges for Israel by Mouammar.

The bottom line is that anyone who expresses support for Israel is a criminal, according to Khaled Mouammar, as he explained in a letter to the Globe and Mail in December 2006.

As noted previously, I couldn’t be happier that Canada is skipping out on the next Durban conference. Although in theory, Durban is supposed to be about combatting racism on a global scale, in practice it became (back in 2001) an exercise in the very thing it supposedly existed to condemn, and there’s little doubt that it will once again turn into just that sort of shameful UN farce.

And if Canada’s refusal to participate in Durban annoys and/or angers the likes of Khaled Mouammar, then that’s just icing on an already delicious cake.

Update: Welcome, BlazingCatFur readers!

And a good thing it is that we did. In theory, the Durban conference is supposed to be a “World Conference Against Racism“, but in practice it turned into an exercise in the very thing it purportedly was convened to oppose.

The so-called Durban II conference “has gone completely off the rails” and Canada wants no part of it, said Jason Kenney, secretary of state for multiculturalism and Canadian identity.

“Canada is interested in combatting Racism, not promoting it,” Mr. Kenney told The Canadian Press. “We’ll attend any conference that is opposed to racism and intolerance, not those that actually promote racism and intolerance.

“Our considered judgment, having participated in the preparatory meetings, was that we were set for a replay of Durban I. And Canada has no intention of lending its good name and resources to such a systematic promotion of hatred and bigotry.”

The 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban turned into “a circus of intolerance,” Mr. Kenney said.

One government official on Wednesday called the conference “a gong show.”

Arab and Muslim countries ganged up in their criticisms of Israel. Israel and the United States walked out in protest; the Liberal government of the day remained in an effort to decry the attacks.

With Libya elected to chair the next gathering, Cuba appointed vice-chair and rapporteur, and anti-Israel rhetoric and actions building, Mr. Kenney said his government was left with no choice but to abandon the preparatory process for the followup meeting.

Canada applauded the government, saying Durban I “degenerated into a hate-fest directed at Israel and the Jewish delegates attending the conference.”

The group’s executive vice-president, Frank Dimant, said Ottawa has acted “clearly and decisively by refusing to participate in a venue that pays lip service to anti-racism but in fact provides a platform for the promotion of hatred and bigotry.”

You know, it really is so true, what RightGirl notes: every day that we have a Conservative government, Canada embarrasses me a little less. That’s not to say that ’s government has a perfect track record (far from it, to be sure!), but it is to say that I can’t recall times under past Canadian governments in which I have felt genuine pride at being Canadian. All too often under the Liberals, it seemed that the definition of what was Canada consisted of little more than syncophantic adoration of the UN and all its initiatives. I like that under the Conservatives, Canada is a global player that isn’t afraid to act in its own interests, or in the interests of one or two of the nations it regards as allies, even if it means snubbing other nations or transnational bodies in the process.

And this is a principled rejection that has taken place here. The UN has become the playground of thug states and third-world tinpot dictators; any organization that lets Libya (of all places!) chair a conference about human rights, racism, or pretty much any other issue is not worth the time it takes to acknowledge its existence.