Once again, most of yesterday's session in the House of Commons was spent on what's becoming dubbed the refugee punishment bill. And while there was no sign of any willingness on the part of the Cons to listen to the opposition's concerns, there's plenty of reason for optimism about the types of messages being developed in challenging the Cons' evidence-free fearmongering.
The Big Issue
Among the interesting developments on the Cons' anti-refugee bill...
- Mike Sullivan highlighted the immigrant heritage of the vast majority of Canadians, himself included. And Jonathan Genest-Jourdain went into even more detail about what the Cons' present-day philosophy would have meant to the development of Canada as it stands.
- Meanwhile, Romeo Saganash and Genest-Jourdain noted that Canada's First Nations heritage is one of openness to other cultures.
- On the Con side, Kevin Sorenson argued that the bill doesn't really mistreat refugees, since it ensures that anybody locked up won't be able to prove that they actually deserve refugee status. And in response to Marc Garneau's question, Mike Wallace helpfully reassured anybody wrongfully detained under the bill that they would receive no compensation whatosever.
- And finally, Peter Julian commented on the danger of giving discretionary power to a minister in a government that's so thoroughly focused on political games rather than good governance, then rightly ridiculed the Cons' argument that refugees fleeing war and strife in their home countries would choose to keep suffering based on the passage of the bill - and all before noting the class implications of the Cons kowtowing to investor-class immigrants while locking up refugees arbitrarily.
Duly Noted
Rick Dykstra helpfully warned anybody who disagrees with government policy to work through back channels, since Stephen Harper doesn't take kindly to looking bad in public.
In Brief
Peggy Nash challenged Jim Flaherty to do something about inequality, with predictably evasive results. In the course of refusing to answer Megan Leslie's questions about ozone monitoring, Peter Kent demonstrated that "600,000 new jobs" is the new "ummm". Gerry Ritz' idea of a gotcha is to point to a Pat Martin statement that the government is able to pass legislation. Tony Clement added expensive outsourcing to the list of topics for which he doesn't dare to answer. And Nycole Turmel started the process of comparing Stephen Harper unfavourably to Barack Obama when it comes to acknowledging the need for an economic boost.
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