Your Useless, Corrupt Government and You

People in Canada are citizens, not colonisers.

If they left en masse, who would buy big screen TVs?:

Green Party MP Jenica Atwin told a parliamentary committee that an amendment to Canada’s United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) bill, otherwise known as Bill C-15, was a step towards “decolonizing Canada.” 

Bill C-15, which was proposed by the Liberal government, hopes to align Canada’s laws with the UNDRIP declaration. 

If the legislation passes, the Canadian government will be required to obtain “free, prior and informed consent” from First Nations groups before “the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of mineral, water or other resources” in accordance with the UN directive. 

According to Atwin, the bill doesn’t go far enough in achieving its goals.

I'm sure it's not important:

Languages Commissioner Raymond Théberge waited nearly two weeks to notify internet users of a privacy breach at his office. Staff mistakenly disclosed the IP addresses of more than 1,500 people who filed complaints with Théberge over a two-year period: “I have a responsibility.”

These were the wrong sort of victims:

“There’s a plan for the offender, but there’s no plan for the victim,” said Stafford. “You get told, ‘OK, well, here’s a little bit of money for counseling, good luck’ and that’s basically it. You have no right. No fight to nothing … The offenders get into the correctional system and Correctional Service Canada says, ‘Well, you know what? Well, now we’re going to help you get back on the streets a lot quicker and we’re going to better your life before we put you out there’ and victims don’t have a lot of rights and things need to change.”

(Sidebar: their needs would be better served if we had an elected and accountable judiciary but I digress ...)

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It is therefore puzzling why Canada would deport some Pakistani Christians back to the country they fled in this current climate. The Charismatic Social Integration of Canada (CIOSC) is a Pakistani Christian advocacy group that recently expressed concern about possible deportations of Christians to Pakistan in this current political climate.

In a press release sent to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the CIOSC stated that “in such a volatile and religiously charged atmosphere, Immigration Canada is making decisions to deport the failed refugee claimants. These decisions are incomprehensible and reprehensible since Canada claims to be a compassionate and humane country.”

It seems there is little thought given to the issue by Immigration Canada. Whether Pakistani Muslims persecute their fellow Pakistanis over perceived blasphemy or whether the French ambassador was responsible for causing offence to these far-right groups, it is indeed a sad reflection on the country’s general state of literacy, enlightenment, and civility.