backformore is Politically Activated.

FTR, I keep calling it "Shit Harper Says" at the end there... It's "Shit Harper Did". LOL




http://www.shitharperdid.ca/

http://www.youtube.com/user/ShitHarperDid/

http://www.twitter.com/shitharperdid

http://www.facebook.com/shitharperdiddotcom



http://www.youtube.com/user/itsoversteve



Rick Mercer's rant about voting:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYgwUQTSC3I



Find me elsewhere!

http://www.formspring.me/backformore

http://twitter.com/backformore

http://dailybooth.com/backformore

An anti-abortion group successfully influenced a government plan to deny funding to Planned Parenthood, says a Conservative seeking re-election..

OTTAWA—An anti-abortion group successfully influenced a government plan to deny funding to Planned Parenthood, says a Conservative seeking re-election.




Brad Trost, incumbent for Saskatoon-Humboldt, addressed the Saskatchewan Pro-Life Association’s annual convention on Saturday and thanked its members for their help in killing federal funding for the group.



In the speech, a recording of which was obtained by the Liberals and given to the Toronto Star and Le Devoir, Trost claims a number of parliamentary victories for the pro-life movement, including a decision to deny funding for the International Planned Parenthood Federation.



Trost said he and “many” other MPs helped spearhead efforts to round up petitions “to defund Planned Parenthood.”



“Let me just tell you, and I cannot tell you specifically how we used it, but those petitions were very, very useful and they were part of what we used to defund Planned Parenthood because it has been absolute disgrace that that organization and several others like it have been receiving one penny of Canadian taxpayers dollars,” Trost said.



The organization, which provides sexual and reproductive health programs worldwide, had applied for $18 million and had been waiting for over a year for word whether the Canadian International Development Agency would approve the grant.



“It’s pretty disappointing,” Mark Hanlon, a director with the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health, the Canadian branch of Planned Parenthood, said of Trost’s remarks.



“I take it as a warning or a message indicating that this funding isn’t going to come,” said Hanlon, noting the group has still not heard from the office of the minister of international aid, Bev Oda.



William Stairs, chief of staff in Oda’s ministerial office said in an email to the Star late Wednesday that despite Trost’s claim, no decision has yet been made on Planned Parenthood’s application because CIDA is “still reviewing the file.”



Hanlon said the umbrella organization provides the “whole gamut of reproductive health services” including counselling for HIV/AIDS patients, unplanned pregnancies, rape victims, and “access to safe abortions, and making sure they’re rare.”



Brad Trost did not respond to the Star’s queries.



Ryan Sparrow, spokesman for the national Conservative campaign, responded late Wednesday via email, and did not deny that the group had been turned down.



He said only: “We base funding decisions on the quality of the proposals we receive. We are proud of our international assistance record and we are proud of the results that have been accomplished under our Conservative government.”



CIDA had not yet responded to the Star’s questions on the Planned Parenthood’s funding applications.



Liberal incumbent Marlene Jennings said Trost’s remarks raise concerns about how influential his pro-life constituency and others would be on a Conservative government, despite Harper’s claim, repeated in this campaign, that he would not legislate away abortion rights.



Conservative officials called an urgent news conference with reporters at 1:30 a.m. in Newfoundland to distance the party from Trost’s controversial comments. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s spokesman, Dimitri Soudas, referred to Trost as a “backbencher” and said he was mistaken to say a decision had been made not to fund International Planned Parenthood for delivery of the government's child and maternal health initiative that was announced at the G8 summit last summer.



“He’s a backbench MP who, without question, isn’t aware of the way that our program works,” he said, adding that the Conservatives would be willing to work with International Planned Parenthood and others who “focus” on the strict criteria set out in the government’s G8 initiative.



“I honestly don’t know where he got his information,” Soudas said.



Official Tory policy on abortion is neither pro-choice or pro-life, he said. It is simply a decision not to reopen the debate on abortion in Canada.

Money launderer linked to Bruce Carson Barbara Lynn Khan.

OTTAWA—A disgraced former adviser to Stephen Harper bought a home with an ex-prostitute — and convicted money launderer — before meeting the young former escort whose water sanitation company is at the centre of illegal lobbying allegations.




Bruce Carson, 65, bought a condo in downtown Ottawa with Barbara Lynn Khan, 43, who served time for money laundering and running a prostitution ring with her estranged husband in North Carolina before being deported back to Canada, public records show.



Harper asked the RCMP to investigate his friend and former adviser last month ahead of a report by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network alleging Carson was peddling his political influence to help a fledgling Ottawa-based company sell water filtration equipment to aboriginal communities. The television network then reported Carson was engaged to a 22-year-old former escort named Michele McPherson, who was a principal in the company and at one point stood to gain 20 per cent of sales.



There were already questions about how someone who had been disbarred, was twice convicted of fraud, had once filed for bankruptcy and was still in heavy debt got a job working for the prime minister. But then The Canadian Press reported earlier this week that Carson actually had a total of five convictions for fraud and had received court-ordered psychiatric treatment.



Newly discovered court records show Khan — who according to previously reported property records bought and shared a $400,000 condo with Carson in November 2009 — was one of seven people operating a prostitution ring in five different states that would advertise in pornographic magazines.



Neither Carson nor his lawyer responded to requests for comment Friday and Khan could not be reached.



“Fear and intimidation were used with customers who failed to pay or were deemed to have been too rough with the prostitutes,” Quebec Superior Court Judge Jean-Pierre Plouffe wrote in October 2004 while refusing bail to the husband, Saleemudeem Khan, who was later extradited to the U.S.



APTN reported Friday that Khan was romantically involved with Carson throughout his time working for Harper from 2006 to 2008 and then followed him to Calgary when he became the executive director of the Canadian School of Energy and Environment.



According to the report, Khan and Carson were still engaged to be married when he asked for the hand of McPherson, a former escort who he bought a home with near Kemptville, Ont., south of Ottawa last December.



Carson also bought a $484,000 home in Manotick, Ont. with his estranged wife, Janet Treasure, in 2008.





The Canadian Press reported Thursday that Carson was cleared by a low or mid-level bureaucrat without any involvement by senior security officials, Harper or his inner circle. The Privy Council Office is now reviewing its screening procedures

Barlagne family allowed to stay.

MONTREAL - A family from France who were told they could not remain in Canada because their 8-year-old handicapped daughter would be an “excessive burden” on social services has won a reprieve after the intervention of Quebec Immigration Minister Kathleen Weil.



David Barlagne’s family will be allowed to stay in Montreal, after an agreement between the federal and provincial immigration departments, Weil’s spokesperson Renaud Dugas said Wednesday.



“We had discussions with (Ottawa) and found a solution that will allow the family to stay,” Dugas said.



The family were facing expulsion from Canada in July after Canadian immigration officials rejected Barlagne’s application for permanent residency status, saying his daughter, Rachel, was deemed “medically inadmissible” because she has cerebral palsy.



Her “excessive burden” on social services would have amounted to $5,259 a year in special educational costs.



After the family held a news conference last week, asking federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney to let them stay on humanitarian grounds, several federal and provincial politicians gave the family their support.



Barlagne moved to Montreal from the French island of Guadeloupe in 2005 on a work permit after he says a Canadian embassy official in Paris told him his daughter’s medical condition would not prevent him from staying here permanently.



The embassy official maintains he told Barlagne no such thing.



Immigration officials in Ottawa contend Barlagne withheld details about Rachel’s medical condition on immigration documents both before and after he arrived in Canada.



Barlagne maintains he has been honest with immigration officials every step of the way.







Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Barlagne+family+allowed+stay+Canada/4647341/story.html#ixzz1K5jRTzkG

Dimitri Soudas, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s spokesman, tried to pressure board members of the Montreal Port Authority to name Robert Abdallah,

MONTREAL—An apparent case of political interference is once again rearing its head in Montreal, but this time it involves the Prime Minister’s Office.




An investigation by Radio-Canada suggests that Dimitri Soudas, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s spokesman, tried to pressure board members of the Montreal Port Authority to name Robert Abdallah, a former director general at Montreal city hall, as its new president.



In a 2007 meeting at Le Muscadin, an Italian restaurant in Old Montreal, Soudas made it clear the federal government favoured Abdallah for the position, according to board member Marc Bruneau.



“There was certainly interference, because we specifically met on the nomination of the new president,” Bruneau told the broadcaster.



The board, however, had other candidates in mind.



Former Tory cabinet minister Michael Fortier also confirmed to Radio-Canada that board members were approached by those claiming “Harper preferred Mr. Abdallah.”



Soudas told the Star Tuesday evening he did nothing wrong and insisted he was simply communicating to the port authority the government’s choice for an appointee.



Radio-Canada reports that Abdallah was also favoured by powerful figures at Montreal city hall. Frank Zampino, at the time the right-hand man of Mayor Gérald Tremblay, wanted Abdallah named and pressured board member Diane Provost to vote for him, according to Claude Dauphin, mayor of the Montreal borough of Lachine.



Abdallah told Radio-Canada the fact he wasn’t named head of the port is proof there wasn’t undue influence.

Canada's brutal refugee policy.

The federal government's rhetoric about the evils of human smuggling has crashed into the twin barriers of unyielding detention policies and common sense.



Canada has traditionally maintained a moderate policy on the detention of asylum seekers. The legal justifications for detention are reasonable and functional: lack of identity documents, a danger to Canada or a flight risk. Fewer than 10 per cent of claimants are detained and most only for a short period of time, usually to confirm their identity. Other countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, have sought to deter refugee claimants by detaining them upon arrival. Those punitive policies have not worked. They have proven to be tremendously expensive, injurious to traumatized refugees, and ineffective in reducing the flow of refugee claimants.



Last August, the Sun Sea arrived from Thailand with 492 Tamil passengers. All of them were detained. Government officials will tell you the children were not "detained," which is technically correct and realistically false. The children had a choice. After their flight from Sri Lanka, lengthy exile in Thailand and a three-month voyage in the bottom of a derelict vessel, they could remain with their mothers in detention or go with English-speaking strangers to an unknown place. Prison guards, kinder than their government, brought toys for the children.



Since their arrival, the Canadian government has pursued a harsh detention policy toward all of the boat passengers, although it soon became obvious that many had no connection with the Tamil Tigers. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) stubbornly opposed the release of any of the claimants, imposing higher standards for identification documents than for normal refugee claimants. When the IRB did order the release of passengers, the government fought the release orders in Federal Court, even those involving women and children, although most of the orders were upheld by the court.



In one notable case, the Federal Court criticized the government's position as an abuse of process when it continued to hold a passenger who had been ordered released on three separate occasions.



During this same period, the government mounted a campaign against human smuggling. Vic Toews, the Minister of Public Safety, had already warned us of the arrival of a boat carrying passengers from Thailand. Five phrases were repeated again and again in government messages: human smugglers, human traffickers, Tamil Tigers, terrorist organization and more boats coming. Smugglers and their passengers might have connections to the Tamil Tigers, which was a terrorist organization. These allegations were potentially true. However the government did not mention the humanitarian side of the story, that the passengers might also be traumatized refugees who had legitimate fears of persecution and had no legal opportunity to claim refugee protection in Thailand. At the time, no one knew which story was true but public opinion polls showed a sharp decrease in support for refugees.



Soon after the boat's arrival, the government introduced Bill C-49, the Bill Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act. The bill primarily punished the smuggled rather than the smugglers. Anyone found to be a refugee could not apply for permanent residence or reunite with their family for another five years. All passengers in a group arrival, man, woman and child, would automatically be detained for up to one year without a right to challenge their detention in court.



Every lawyer in the country understood that this provision violated the Canadian Charter of Rights. The Supreme Court of Canada had recently struck down a law that imposed three months of detention without judicial review. More cynical commentators said the government's true purpose was to embarrass the opposition rather than to pass an unenforceable bill. To their credit, all opposition parties publicly opposed the bill on principle and it was withdrawn from the House order paper. Now an election campaign is underway and the Conservatives have made human smuggling a key election issue accusing the opposition of being "weak on human smuggling."



Nearly eight months after the Sun Sea's arrival, fewer than 40 Tamil claimants remain in detention. To date, two men have been found to be inadmissible to Canada due to connections with the Tigers. Running out of arguments to sustain the detentions, CBSA has been demanding that detainees provide proof that they have paid off the smugglers before being released. The convoluted logic is that the detainees could be flight risks; they might go underground in order to pay off their debts even though they could legally work until their refugee claim is decided. In order to comply with that demand, relatives of the detainees are selling land and possessions or borrowing money in order to pay off the smugglers. In effect, CBSA has become a debt collector for the smugglers while the Conservative government continues to rail against the evils of human smuggling. Go figure.



National security is an important issue that should not be taken lightly. It should also not be the manufactured excuse for the unreasonably harsh treatment of refugees. Ever since 9-11, refugees have been unfairly and foolishly linked with North American security. It is unfair because real and unnecessary damage has been done to some refugees. It is foolish because the real security dangers are ignored while public and government attention is diverted elsewhere. Requiring refugees to pay off the smugglers is one of the more ludicrous examples of narrow, Orwellian thinking. Next thing you know, they'll be taking away manicure scissors at airport security. Oh wait, they already do that.



Peter Showler teaches refugee law at the University of Ottawa where he is the director of the Refugee Forum at the Human Rights Research and Education Centre.







Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Detained+Tamils+case+exposes+Canada+brutal+refugee+policy/4632681/story.html#ixzz1Jwh7eqRp

Canadians shrug off 'just visiting' attacks .

OTTAWA - For most of his long career as an academic and journalist, Michael Ignatieff has lived and worked outside of Canada.




He returned to Canada in 2005, became a Liberal MP in 2006 and, almost immediately after that, was derided by his Conservative opponents who claimed he was "just visiting" Canada and that "he didn't come back for you."



Indeed, those are the main themes of the Conservative anti-Ignatieff attack ads in this election campaign.



Now, a new poll, done exclusively for QMI Agency by Leger Marketing, shows that the Conservative attacks appear to have had some success in key election battlegrounds but, overall, most Canadians - or 54% - think the issue is irrelevant or that Ignatieff's overseas experience is a good thing for an applicant for the job of prime minister.



But in Ontario, where Liberals must do well to have any hope of forming a government, 43% say it's "a bad thing" that Ignatieff has spent most of his working life outside of Canada, while 41% of Ontarians say it's irrelevant and 9% say it's "a good thing".



In B.C., 42% of respondents said Ignatieff's resume is a bad thing while 44% said it's irrelevant and 8% said it's a good thing.



Quebecers and Atlantic Canadians seemed the least susceptible to the Conservative attack line. In the provinces east of Ontario,



more than half of respondents said the Liberal leader's work record was irrelevant. And in Quebec, 16% said it was a good thing, a sharp contrast with Alberta where just 4% of respondents agreed it was positive.



The poll was conducted April 15 to 17, after last week's leaders debates. Leger surveyed 3,534 respondents selected randomly from its online panel of more than 350,000 Canadians. The pollster says results would be accurate to within 1.7 percentage points 19 times out of 20 for a similar-sized group selected randomly from among all Canadians.