Celebrating Canada鈥檚 150th birthday should be cause for celebration, but every single media article that cropped up on my social media feed last week had something to do with how racist we are, how intolerant we are, and how much more we need to improve in order to be a welcoming country that we can be proud of. You know, by the time I was done reading all the articles I had to ask myself, 鈥淲hy do immigrants even want to come to such a shameful, disgusting country like Canada?鈥 I think we can all say we don鈥檛 like associating with people who, needlessly, put themselves down. Well, that鈥檚 what we do as a collective group in Canada. It seems that if you are of European descent, you need to feel shame and embarrassment to be Canadian and your citizenship is less valuable than someone else鈥檚.聽
Not to my surprise, even Justin Trudeau got in on the act. In an interview, he said he wished he was an immigrant because people who have lived here since birth don鈥檛 appreciate being Canadian. So, add unpatriotic to the list of bad things about Canadian people. What I鈥檇 like to have happen for Trudeau is that we should fly him first class to Syria and then drop him in the middle of a war torn city and wish him all the best as he begins his journey to Canada. I鈥檓 betting within his first day, he will take back that desire to be an immigrant.聽
Trudeau also delivered a passionate speech on Canada Day, where he rattled off all the names of the provinces and territories. The only problem is that he forgot Alberta. It鈥檚 an honest mistake, Trudeau apologists have been telling me all week. I get it. I mean we have 10 provinces and 3 territories. How can anyone, let alone a Prime Minister, be expected to recall them all? It鈥檚 tough! You try it! I bet you forget Ontario.聽
On America鈥檚 birthday, the Canadian government felt that would be the right time to announce they would be giving Omar Khadr $10.5 million as compensation for鈥 well鈥 Depends on your opinion on this whole matter. I feel they are using some legalese to allow Khadr to profit from crime, which is illegal, actually. But the bleeding hearts will tell you he was tortured as a teenager, his rights were violated, and we should pay him an obscene amount of money to make it better. I don鈥檛 think he鈥檚 owed a penny for killing a decorated US soldier. Khadr was 15. I have a 15 year old son. He doesn鈥檛 need me to teach him anything with regards to knowing whether or not killing another human being is a good or bad thing. We are so stupid in this country. I just find it incredible that we have native communities with no drinking water and we can鈥檛 afford to rectify that situation, yet we can just write a cheque for $10.5 million to Khadr and put it in his hands instantly. I鈥檇 like to know how we arrived at $10.5 million as opposed to $1 million. Or $100 000. Or $1. This doesn鈥檛 pass the sniff test to me at all. Canada is so far in debt we will never see the light at the end of the tunnel in any of our lifetimes. So, 鈥榮orry鈥 and 鈥榟ey, we鈥檇 give you $10 million if we had the dough, but we don鈥檛; have a nice life鈥 would work for me.聽
Now for the real rub on this. There is a hearing in Ontario on Wednesday to see if the American soldiers鈥 families involved in the Khadr incident can go after his Canadian money. Why was the government in a hurry to get this deal finished and completed before Wednesday? Khadr owes the American families $134 million, so he really should turn over all $10.5 million to them. Yet, it appears to me that there has been some corrupt legal work done behind the scenes where the Canadian government has done Khadr a favor so that, just in case he loses Wednesday鈥檚 hearing, the $10.5 million can鈥檛 be touched by the Americans because it was given to Khadr before the hearing and any money he gets before that hearing would be off limits. Sneaky. Dirty. Wrong. And, if Khadr has turned into a 鈥榞ood guy鈥 why isn鈥檛 he, voluntarily, giving some (or all) of this payment to the Americans who it has been determined he owes?聽
This is as underhanded as it gets. Forget the whole 鈥榞iving millions to a terrorist鈥 argument. There are left wing whackos out there who will say he wasn鈥檛 a terrorist at all, but rather a 鈥榗hild soldier鈥 who was clueless as to what he was doing. I鈥檓 just not that gullible. I also feel that when it comes to war, there are no rules. So if you want to waterboard or deprive sleep to a 15 year old terrorist in order to get crucial information, you do it. I recognize a lot of you won鈥檛 share that opinion and that鈥檚 fine. But forget all this. The seedy method of rushing this before Wednesday鈥檚 hearing can鈥檛 be argued by anyone. It鈥檚 Canada siding with Khadr and against the United States and our feelings on that decision need to be made clear when we vote in 2019.