Wrzesnewskyj's dealings with Hezbollah derails Liberal Party summit
At the Liberal Party retreat in Vancouver, touted as an opportunity to pull the party together, the in-fighting continues to escalate as two leadership hopefuls repeat their demand that Borys Wrzesnewskyj resign from his position as deputy foreign affairs critic.
The Liberal Party is holding a retreat in Vancouver:
The federal Liberal caucus meets in Vancouver this week to continue working to provide an effective and principled opposition to the governing Conservatives, Liberal Opposition Leader Bill Graham and Caucus Chair Ray Bonin said at the opening of the party’s summer caucus retreat.
“This week is about rolling up our sleeves and getting down to work to reinvigorate this party,” said Mr. Graham. “It’s about having meaningful dialogue regarding policy, plans for the coming session of Parliament and preparing for an election, whenever it may come.”
Here's an example of meaningful dialogue:
At the summer caucus retreat, leadership hopefuls Scott Brison and Carolyn Bennett called for the resignation of fellow MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj who, on a fact-finding mission in Lebanon, suggested Canada should be more open to talking to Hezbollah.
"Borys should resign as critic. His statements were unacceptable," said Brison.
The comments quickly became the central topic of the three-day retreat which was supposed to be a strategy session for the upcoming session of Parliament.
Let's watch as more and more MPs are forced to take sides on the immediate issue of Boris Wrzesnewskyj, and on the larger issue of how to deal with Hezbollah, and terrorism in general.
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Comments
Yep, 13 years to have meaningful dialogue and you still haven't got your foreign policy ducks in a row.
Well if they can't recognize a patent terrorist organization, with the goal of the obliteration of Israel, then they number among the pheasantasies of the future.
Hezbollah doesn't give a tinker's damn who lives or dies as long as it is for the 'greater cause' of the destruction of Israel. Well if one takes the position that life is inherently cheap, why should anyone cut them any quarter?
Posted by: Hans Rupprecht at August 23, 2006 02:28 AM
That is so unfair that they're actually forced to take sides.
Posted by: Chris from Victoria, BC at August 23, 2006 03:40 AM
"Borys should resign as critic. His statements were unacceptable," said Brison.
So I'm asking, if the Liberals are unable to have a meaningful dialog amongst themselves, how on earth are they going to have (as government) a dialog with Hezbollah?
Posted by: john at August 23, 2006 06:30 AM
Their problem is they need to find a popular opinion poll to give them a position.But the issue is so complex they can't find one that will give them a clear answer.
Making a decision on this one is difficult and requires true leadership....which is why the Liberals are so confused.
Posted by: David at August 23, 2006 08:03 AM
Should Canada not deal with Hezbollah as the terrorist organization it is? And was so listed by the previous Liberal government?
The Grits seem to have a severe Short-Term Memory problem, along with their acute moral myopia.
Posted by: Dave at August 23, 2006 08:21 AM
What do you expect from a party that is buddy-buddy with the Tamil Tigers?
Posted by: Jonny_eh at August 23, 2006 09:38 AM
The Liberals are buddy-buddy with terrorists because they know what they have allowed into the country and they put their sympathies where the votes are. All that matters to that party of no principles is votes and ultimately power so they can keep on keeping in power by any means. Anyone remember the Gomery inquiry over Adscam? Shawinigate? Chretien when asked about scrapping the GST stated for all to hear, "IT" GONE"caught live, on tape, then denied he said it. HE LIED. Surely the real Canadians are better than that and will leave that motley crew in the compost where they belong to roil around until they have cleaned up their act and produce something useful to offer the people.
Posted by: Biddy at August 23, 2006 10:17 AM
David, You're right about the opinion polling of course - but the Libs did take a position on this remember?
1)Israel has a right to defend itself against Hezbollah
2)Israel should stop defending itself against Hezbollah
That's as clear as it gets for a sit-on-the-fence Liberal
Posted by: Rob at August 23, 2006 11:27 AM
If you visit the Liberal party website (ugh),you will find the typical musings about what the Cons are doing wrong and so forth.
But there is one glaring omission.There is not one word, that I can find anyways,that condemns Harper on his position on the mid east crisis.Further,there is no statement on what there position is.It's as if there is nothing going on at all.
The grits can't make a statement on this issue even in a partisan environment.They are in disarray.
Posted by: David at August 23, 2006 12:43 PM
Rob pointed out that "the Libs did take a position on this [Israel/Hezbollah] remember?
1)Israel has a right to defend itself against Hezbollah.
2)Israel should stop defending itself against Hezbollah.
Isn't another word for this flip-flop Pierre Elliott Trudeau's immoratal words of wisdom: fuddle duddle?
Posted by: 'been around the block at August 23, 2006 03:22 PM
People wonder why Stephen Harper gagged his cabinet at the start of Parliament.
Posted by: john at August 23, 2006 08:21 PM
Ahmadi-Nejad steams & nukes his way to world domination for Islamofascist religious ideology
By Albert Gedraitis, 30 Endean Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4M1W6
Phone/fax: 416-461-5975; E-mail: owlbird@sympatico.ca; owlhoot@mac.com
Check out my Anti-Islamofascist Blog: http://refwritepage1.blogspot.com/
The deadline Iran gave itself to make a major announcement on its nuke has come and gone with 0nly a 20-page technical document of non-compliance to the UN requirement that it stop processing unranium. This development is stark evidence of the Iranian imperialistic goal to establish itself as a new Muslim caliphate: Shi'ite and mullocratic. The nukes under development will underwrite Iran's first colony in Hizbullite Lebanon and undermine the development of a democratic order there. While Iran spends millions in Lebanon it is squeezing its own poor and clamping down on dissident voices, the goal is total control over information and opinion within the country. With the prospect of Iran playing the games of diplomatic discouse at the UNSC, the full unveiling of its colony for what it is, snugly embedded in Lebanon among that country's Shi'ites, blocking its own populace from communicating outside the regime's purview, capable of sending agents into Canada among returning dual citizens from Southern Lebanon and into the USA itself, and now giving the appearance of responding to the appeal of its client (oil) and ally (diplomacy, munitions) China. Previously Iran used the Hizbullah War for 34 days to distract the world from its nuclear project, now it will use the UNSC talks on uranium and nukes to distract the world from its aggressive activities to rebuild, refortify and re-weaponize the Hizbullah colonials.
Altho there's no knowing how long he will last, in public at least, the man at the helm of Iran gives a public-face to the apocalypticism unique to Persian Shia Islam which may be playing a key role in the multifront campaign to gain the leadership of Muslims worldwide and establish Iran at the hub of a new world empire. The man, whose name in English is widely rendered Ahmadinejad, should better be spelled Ahmadi-Nejad to bring out the crucial term "Ahmadi" which plays a large role in the Presidenct's apocalypticism.
No one can accuse Ahmadinejad of being circumspect about the religious views that shape his worldview. He speaks on those views quite frequently, but they are a taboo subject for Westerners unaccustomed to thinking that is self-consciously religious. The reactionary response is to dismiss it as mental instability or label it as “fundamentalist”, but facing the reality of a nuclear Iran, such a reaction is not only short-sighted and narrow minded, but possibly suicidal. Ahmadinejad’s worldview is shaped by the radical Hojjatieh Shiism that is best represented by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, the Iranian President’s ideological mentor and marja-e taqlid (object of emulation), of the popular Haqqani religious school located in Qom. The affection seems to be mutual: in the 2k5 Iranian presidential campaign, Ayatollah Yazdi issued a fatwa calling on his supporters to vote for Ahmadinejad.
Rooted in the Shiite ideology of martyrdom and violence, the Hojjatieh sect adds messianic and apocalyptic elements to an already volatile theology. They believe that chaos and bloodshed must precede the return of the 12th Imam, called the Mahdi. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has clearly indicated that he is a true believer in this faith. It has been reported that he has told confidants that he anticipates the immanent return of the Mahdi. When he previously served as Mayor of Tehran, he advocated for widening the roads to accommodate the Mahdi’s triumphal entry into the city. One of his first acts of office as President was to dedicate approximately $20 million to the restoration and improvement of the mosque at Jamkaran, where the Mahdi is claimed to dwell.
This personal belief directs his official policies as President. He has publicly said, “Our revolution’s main mission is to pave the way for the reappearance of the 12th Imam, the Mahdi. We should define our economic, cultural and political policies on the policy of the Imam Mahdi’s return.”
However, Ahmadinejad’s messianism doesn’t stop with the Mahdi. In fact, he has made it clear that he believes he has personally received a divine appointment to herald the imminent arrival of the Mahdi, tacitly acknowledging his own role in setting aright the problems of the world. His belief in a personal divine appointment was best confirmed after his speech to the United Nations last September, which was laden with references to the Mahdi. In the recent war between Israel and Hezbollah, Ahmadi-Nejad and the entire Iranian leadership have stood firmly behind Hezbollah. However, the Iranian public seems wary of a confrontation with Israel and is questioning the wisdom of spending the nation's oil revenues in Lebanon when they are needed at home. Should Iran become embroiled in a further outbreak of fighting, Lebanon may become a domestic political liability.
If the nuclear confrontation with the West does not escalate, Ahmadi-Nejad's ability to project himself as Iran's national champion will diminish. His populist economic policies are unlikely to reduce inflation and unemployment, and they could make life more difficult for the working-class Iranians he claims to represent. He may increasingly be seen as a liability by Khamenei, who may move to sideline him. However much the Hizbullah War may have stirred temporarily Arab and Muslim rejoicing among the masses, Sunni-dominated Arab states instead saw threates to civic order and societal instablity in the Hizbullah adventurism. What, incredibly, this lacks is any sense of the inter-relationship between the threat in the Iranian colony, the threat of Iranian nuclear weaponization, and the Iranian imperialist ideology which threatens even without the glosses of the Hojjatieh sect and Iranian President Ahmadi-Neejad's personal sense of an apocalyptic vocation. I feel all these matters matter to the Sunni royals and other political leaders.
-- Politicarp
Posted by: Albert Gedraitus at August 26, 2006 01:42 PM
 
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