I blame Stephen Harper

This new Canadian gov't is really ticking me off. Perhaps, it's just my dislike of the way Stephen Harper is dealing with things that I just want to blame him with all that goes wrong. It really troubles me that the stance that Peter McCabe and Harper have taken on this Israel - Hezbollah aggression is so in line with the US stance, "It's all Hezbollah's fault, Israel is only defending itself." While that may be true what about the flip side to that, it's all Israel's fault and Hezbollah is only defending itself. Harper and his gov't had no right to pick a side in this matter. Their role was to unbiased and neutral.

Enough with that...I just read an article on CBC.ca about a Pakistani family (Shia muslim) seeking assylum in a United church in Winnipeg. The Canadian gov't is rejecting their refugee claim and deporting them back to Pakistan. It seems that since this Harper gov't has been in power I have heard more stories about families being deported. I can accept that this conservative gov't wants to control and crackdown on those that misuse our immigration laws...but why deport families that contribute to our society? If they want to deport people why not deport those who will not contribute to our society, why not deport those who committ violent acts of crime. Personally, I don't think we should deport anyone.

There is a reason that people escape to this country. Canada is truly a free country. People want freedom. It is in our very nature to want it. Just consider this family seeking assylum. (It's interesting on two fronts really, 1., a muslim family seeking assylum within the confines of a Christian church, 2., a productive hard working family being deported.) Canada has a rich history of saving people and granting freedom. Why then would we break our own history and send people who are escaping tyranny and bondage only to send them back to it. Is that fair? Is that compassionate? Consider the American slaves, they escaped slavery from the deep south, the Underground Railroad led them to Canada. Canada was their haven. At one point the northern states would have been enough, but the US congress passed a bill allowing slave owners to chase down their slaves in any part of the country and bring them back. Therefore leaving them only Canada as their only option. This is where they found their freedom. What would history have said about us if we would have sent these slaves back to their "masters" in the deep south of the US? If Canada would have sent those slaves back to the US to their "masters", this country would have been no better than those American states in which slavery was lawful.

Canada is an open and tolerant country, it is a just country. In these matters of deportation are we being just to these people?