Reader “TomR” writes in the comments about something I’ve also noticed – the similarity of tone in Canadian media coverage of the evacuation from Lebanon with the (now largely discredited) reporting from New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina;
Canada’s media has seized on to Harper’s “Katrina” and isn’t going to let it go. No matter what is done for Canadians in Lebanon, it will not be enough. Just think back to Katrina last year and you hear the same things coming from the ingrates that the MSM finds: relief wasn’t fast enough, why weren’t they prepared for this, it’s so disorganized, there’s not enough food & water, it’s too hot, they’re treating us like animals, etc. No-one to be found that is grateful for being rescued and few questions about how thousands of people came to be in the predicament to begin with.
Except, I don’t think it’s working. And that’s not a perception coming from callers to talk radio – read some of the responses at Al-Jazeera North; (link fixed)
Who are these people? First, they complain that the government doesn’t have a complete flotilla standing by on 24 hours notice to evacuate them from any place in the world. Then, when the flotilla does show up, they complain that it wasn`t first class.
Someone ought to tell them to stop the whining and the CBC ought to stop giving credence to this nonsense.
I do believe that the pursuit of this particular agenda by a tone-deaf Liberal media is about to result in no small degree of blowback. And consider that these are the comments that were allowed through the editorial filter of the CBC. I can’t begin to imagine what was rejected.
To those not clued in to the workings of governments, PMSH brought along the photographer to document this government action. If he was into the photo op thing he would have chosen a “select” member or two of the MSM who would trip all over themselves to get that exclusive.
It also seems that Jason Hillier from the centre of the known universe is quite the artist. He manages to paint all Westerners with that same redneck paintbrush he charges us cowboy hat wearing westerners seem to use. Perhaps he could pull his head out of his ass and come to grips with reality.
Can I just say, in passing, that ET’s comment to the effect that “Well, my dear, it’s a boat.” is one of the most delightful phrasings I’ve recently read. Thank you.
Now, on to more serious matters. One of the things we are seeing here is a good healthy debate about the nature of citizenship. Personally, I do think that a certain degree of residency, perhaps, say, 6.01 months per year, averaged over the last three years, should be a requirement for first-class citizenship.
Perhaps variances could be allowed for Canadians with home assets working abroad on extended employment contracts. And the long-term absconders could be considered citizens in exile, subject always, of course, to the Prodigal Son clause 😉
But I fail to see how we are supposed to build a great country if we let our very notion of national citizenry responsibility be corrupted by citizens of convenience. The degree to which my proviso applies to the current situation is, per my current understanding, open to debate: I don’t think we’ve got very good statistical data yet.
Oh, and on the matter of the prime minister’s official photographer, I agree with Texas Canuck, if you don’t think he’s close to the last person you want to ditch, I’d suggest you take that up with Archives Canada, or whatever they’re called now a days. You have to be at least a general to trump the prime minister’s official photographer, and I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing.
Merci, Jean-Jacques. Send over thirteen boatloads of Eau de Vichy, 1940. It was a good year. …-
France offers to work with Canada to evacuate citizens from Lebanon
PARIS (CP) – French President Jacques Chirac has offered to help evacuate Canadians from war-ravaged Lebanon, Quebec Premier Jean Charest said Thursday.
cnews
if, IF the half-andhalfs had deined to board a BOAT or PLANE periodically, they would be much more mindful of the need to keep a bottle of anti-nausia pills ready for the whole family.
the complaint about motion sickness is excellent PROOF this bunch was much inclined to STAY at one ‘end’ of their half-and-half passport.
so why all the godam whining ???
st vituvius: ‘bureausclerosis’ LOL !!!!
a local politishun was front and centre in the local rag about stress from learning his family was stuck in beirut having ‘missed the boat’ as they say. whining about government disinterest and inaction.
this was the same politishun who waited SIX GODAM MONTHS before deciding he was going to give me my 15 minutes of fame to get answers about police procedure that they wouldnt produce.
half a godam year I waited until he clued in I wasnt quietly going away. yet HE bitches and bitches in the newspaper about how the canadian government left his family at risk bla bla bla.
Hannah Boudreau (Global News) began yelping at Mr. Harper’s heels when she implied, almost joyfully, that Mr. Harper had made a grave error when he came out in support of Israel. She must be an Ottawa Press Gallery winemaker, pressing sour grapes re. his disrespect for the press.
Early this evening on Global they had that bald idiot on the boat yelling, we were treated like animals ,no food , dirty toilets, people sick, about four times in the hour. Earlier they had a guy behind the counter of a store that looked like one of the millions of convienience stores in Toronto. He obviously had relatives trying to get out. He said” Canada, ptah, G8 Country Ptah, They no can get them out, Greece get theirs out, Turkey get theirs out, France get theirs out, but Canada Ptah”. Maybe we should have used the four boats that Chretien bought, and the helicopters Mulroney bought just before the Liberals came into power thirteen years ago.
Seasickness
On a boat
In the Mediteranean
We’re not making this up
One newsclip from CTV yesterday had a story about a family that had to drive to the Syrian border, and was turned back at two border crossings, and was finally allowed into Syria after bribing a border guard. The family, now safely in Canada, included a daughter about 16-20. The daughter was sad and worried about the fighting going on at home.
Home? If she is Canadian, wouldn’t the fighting be in Toronto or Montreal or wherever they were from? Obviously, she didn’t consider Canada to be ‘home’.
On another note, if we were to re-introduce the draft, with all Canadian citizens under age 50 required to perform some type of government service (not necessarily military), how many of those dual citizens would suddenly lose their Canadian passport?
…Just a random thought.
I too would like V. to tell where he got the Red Ensign auto flag.
Better still, and while we’re at it, does anyone know where to get a Red Ensign front licence plate?
Harpers solution to all this confusion seems SO simple I’m surprised he hasn’t thought of this himself. Obviously, the boats he rented are not up to todays greedy, selfish standards. He should have somebody at the embassy go down to the dock with a megaphone and tell everyone “the boats are being replaced by luxury cruise ships. Everybody return to your residence until we call you approximately the 1st of August.” By August, Lebanon will be erased from the globe drastically reducing the number of people needing to be rescued. Think of the $’s this Gov’t would save
I am impressed that Harper rerouted his flight home to Cyprus.
Not a surprise. Like most Conservative supporters, you are easily impressed.
The Prime Minister was shown with Laureen, greeting folks boarding the aircraft.
It was very heart-warming!
Thanks for the exclamation point, btw.
Kim Jong-Il’s boys will not doubt take a cue from your enthusiastic response to this piece of propaganda, and do their best to reproduce it for the admirers of their Dear Leader.
Meanwhile, at the Globe and Mail, the paper reeks of emotionalist fear-mongering and geo-political appeasment, except, interestingly, the main editorials have not been tarring and feathering the prime minister.
This distortion of the Globe’s coverage of the current crisis falls somewhere between caricature and hallucination: today’s editorial cheered Harper on as he applauded war crimes and state-sponsored terrorism.
It is literally beyond belief that such repeated hearty endorsements of Harper’s approval of Israeli crimes could be called, litote-style, ‘not been tarring and feathering the prime minister.’
A misstatement as inaccurate as it is shameful, to be sure.
Not that most readers of this blog have shown much concern for Canada’s reputation as a defender of international norms, of course.
I have to give Anderson “The Mole” Cooper credit for refusing to agree with Wolf Blitzer yesterday when Wolf asked him to compare the evacuation efforts to Katrina, saying that those comparisons only politicized the issue back home.
If only there was a Canadian journalist or two that would stand up like that.
Steven your an a terrorist cheering idiot! You know absolutly shit! International norms? Surely you mean “F**k the Jooos”
B Hoax Aware at 6:34, You hit the nail right on the head.
Sarge ; mandatory civil service, minimum of say three years? A wonderful solution to today’s current “I don’t know what kind of hyphenated Canadian I am” problem. Can you imagine the fuss CUPE would raise?
Stephen: “Like most Conservative supporters, you are easily impressed.”
Well, given the PM’s we’ve had recently, it’s not that hard to be easily impressed. As others have noted, when the tsunami hit, it took us almost three weeks to get help there. Same thing when we sent DART personnel to help in the Kashmir earthquakes. Actually having the PM there in a few days is a welcome relief. And, since you apparently can’t grasp the obvious – Harper had a plane in Paris (4 hrs flight from Lebanon). He could have chosen to return to Canada with all the media on board. He didn’t have the option of taking a commercial flight; current Canadian security regulations prohibit that. So his choices were: return to Canada with the media (and of course, be hit with charges of his insensitivity), or do what he did (take advantage of the fact he had a Canadian military plane in proximity and redeploy it to best effect). Please explain in detail exactly what your objection to this is.
Part of the difficulty is the Canadian military doesn’t have sufficient heavy-lift aircraft or helicopters, since previous governments have starved the military for various political reasons. Yet who is Peter Mansbridge and others blaming for Canada’s response time?
As for Canada’s reputation as “a defender of international norms”, are we to assume that these norms include the right of an unelected group to brutalize and take over sections of a country, and use that area to bomb another sovereign country, to whose existence they are committed to destroy?
Sorry, that’s not part of my Canada.
Now, if you have any testicles, Stephen, you might try to refute each of these assertions. Please be aware I’m not holding my breath.
we dont need no civil servants.
we dont need no thought control.
the liberals bought us lots of problems.
people , people leave them lebs alone.
all in all it just another brick in the wall.
Has anybody besides me noticed that this is a racially motivated conflict. The Lebanese are an occupied country, both Syria and Iran have active military presences uninvited by the Democratically Elected Lebanese gov’t. To say nothing at all about the international and homeless Hezbollah organization who is largely squatting in their claimed turf also against and beyond the power of the Lebanese to truly resist. Much like the darker hollywood crime story movies. Lebanon has not asked for intervenor action from the UN to correct these incursions against their just soverignty. Yet when the Hezbollah terrorist and crime organisation crosses the border grabs a couple of Israelite soldiers and drags them back accross the border into their sqatters claimed lands, The Lebanese inexplicably support their internal usurper crime organisation. Having written this now I can really only draw this conclusion, the lebanese are using the Hezbollah organisation as a front for their own true intentions, a mask so that should they fail in their attempt (whatever that may really be) it will not be the Lebanese gov’t who will be brought up on war crimes for the instigation of this conflict.
Daryl
Nice try at a conspiracy theory, Daryl but I think that the average Lebanese muslim is sympathetic towards palestinians and their cause. The sympathy of the average Mo in Lebanon has no doubt resulted in apathetic indecision in both the Lebanese government and the military.
Mississauga Matt, thanks for the list of foreign nationals as per the BBC’s published list. I am doubtful that the numbers are accurate to within 50%. But I may be proven wrong in the next few weeks and will keep an open mind about that.
Daryl Haaland, you make some good observations. I’d go further in that I think the Lebanese government would have clobbered Hezbollah and reclaimed control over its territory — if the Lebanese state had the military means by which to do much clobbering.
Syria, and Iran, and the Hezbollah, all of them have a much greater stake in keeping Lebanon defanged than does Israel. But it is Israel which has the military means to knock the stuffing out of the Hezbollah squatters. No matter who does the deed, it must be done if Lebanon is to become sovereign again.
And yet I cannot fault the Lebanese PM for the tightrope walking he has been doing. His country is being pounded. His population is increasingly being displaced. The prospect of occupation has always existed — whether by Israel or Syria — and no PM can be seen “inviting” the invasion of his country. Heck, I can’t see him even welcoming it behind the scenes. It is a war and damage is being done to lives and property. Deaths are mounting.
On the other hand, sometimes the fight cannot be avoided. The Lebanese military has not taken sides. That way would lead to civil war, I think. So the politics in Lebanon are extremely complicated by factors that most of us in North America could not imagine.
But if the Israeli military action does nothing more than cripple Hezbollah and warn-off Syria, it will be a victory, longterm, for Lebanon. A painful victory. I don’t expect any PM to welcome the painful part even if, realistically, he must watch his back while he watches Israel do what his own government would have done itself.
Iran is the strongest hand with the puppet strings making the actors dance. I think they have gone too far and will probably be chased out of the region. What that might lead to is anyone’s guess. I’d expect that the Iranian nuclear program will come to a sudden hault, unilaterally. Before this Lebanon campaign is over.
If Israel can achieve its military victory rapidly, and can extend a non-occupying hand to Lebanon, longterm, there is an excellent opportunity for countries like Canada to protect the sovereignty of the Lebanese until they can do it on their own. And, regionwide, that means more commimtnet, yet again more commitment, in Afghanistan and in Iraq, with Lebanon a natural extension of that commitment.
I’m willing to bet the numbers of Lebanese-Canadians (40-50k) is a gross exageration.
I also expect the true number to be verified after the fact to the disapointment of the cbc
AP says the barrage “fell short… of their targets”. Really? Is there a cover-up? Would AP make up lies?
A complete report from Louise Arbour/Kofi Annan is not expected. How long has the UN been in Lebanon, anyway? Peacekeepers, yeah. Peacekeepers in blue helmets? …-
Israel: Hezbollah rockets hit U.N. post (in Lebanon)
Associated Press ^ | July 21, 2006
JERUSALEM – A barrage of Hezbollah-fired rockets aimed at northern Israel fell short of their targets and struck a United Nations observation post in Lebanon, the Israeli army said Friday. An army spokesman said it wasn’t immediately clear if the United Nations Interim Force post was occupied at the time or if there were casualties.
free republic
I’m willing to bet the numbers of Lebanese-Canadians (40-50k) is a gross exageration.
The CBC was reporting last night that the feds had already been contacted by 32K.
there may not be any Canadian warships in the area, but I’ll bet there is a Canada Steamship line ship within a days run.
a couple of cases of perrier, some linen table clothes, and load all the journalists on it and take them out to sea for the next two weeks.
where is the Old Captain Canada- Brian Tobin and Admiral Mr. Dithers -PMformerPM?
they should be flying in to Tel Aviv and crossing the northern border leading the wayward Canadian citizens to the sea.
I’ve been awake with the T.V. on for the last 45 minutes. Virtually the entire time I was up there was a constant stream of newscasts of evacuees suffering from “nausea” and saw two different interviews with people saying the Canadian government “failed them”.
Unbelievable.
I guess in the future Canada should have a quick reaction force on standby for those who become citizens of Canada and then return back to their war torn countries to live.
My barber is Lebanese; his wife and daughter are briefly in Lebanon on vacation and visiting relatives. I offered that he must be very worried about them with the current situation. His response was “Naw, they’re fine.” and seemed completely nonchalant about the whole thing. Usually, very anti-American and anti-Israeli, his laconic offering was that what was happening was going to make the country better in the long run. I was gobstruck but subsequently looking at the BBC’s map of Lebanese internal demographics it struck me that Lebanon is another of these colonial national creations that Europeans left behind. If, as I suspect, he’s a Sunni Muslim (and he clearly is muslim) then the family likely is in a safe area of Lebanon, and the purging of the Shiite Hezbollah won’t cause them to shed a tear.
I’m inclined to agree with Daryl and Chairm. Politically, Lebanon is anything but homogeneous, and the central government is still weak and forced to continually walk a tight rope in its efforts to maintain any semblance of national cohesion. But provided the infrastructure can be restored post conflict, and provided the conflict doesn’t drag on too long, this may have a “cleaning” effect that will allow the Lebanese central government to gain greater control and greatly diminish the influence of the militant foreign proxies within the country. Let’s hope.
Note how quiet the ME states of Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and SA are about this conflict. And Europe.
They’ve realized that it’s Iran behind the whole set-up – and it was a set-up, with Iran and its side-kick, Syria, setting up Hamas to go into Israel (an act of war) and Hezbollah to go into Israel (an act of war) to kidnap its military; and, Hamas/Hezbollah to fire rockets into Israel. Why? To get Israel to attack Gaza and above all, Lebanon. It hoped that Lebanon would dissolve into civil war, as the gov’t fought the ‘state within a state’ Hezbollah. Then, Syria would move back into Lebanon. Instead, Israel is doing that job, of destroying Hezbollah.
Iran wants to rule the ME, it wants to take over the whole ME. One tactic is to get Syria back into Lebanon. Another, is to keep democracy out of Iraq which is why Iran is behind the insurgents there. Another tactic is to get the Arab states against the West and Israel. But, so far, none of this is working. Instead, Egypt, Jordan, SA are sitting it out and/or even actively siding with Israel!
Don’t think that Iran will give up its ultimate plan. If it doesn’t get control of Lebanon back for Syria, it will still go ahead with its nuclear ambitions. What might happen – just a guess – is that the other Arab states might even turn against Iran!
I seem to recall Ottawa giving control of immigration to Quebec.
IMO, that was a really dumb thing to do and I would not be surprised if that is what has led to a situation where Canada has many citizens of convenience from Lebanon.
I would be curious if the same situation exists in Algeria for instance and/or any other former French colonies.
I think having a province with control over immigration and citizenship could prove to be recipe for disaster for the rest of Canada.
Not only did alot of these people get a free ride home, but I wonder how many are looking at it as an opportunity to get a “free” holiday back in Canada – maybe get some health care while they are here – and…
Mark my words…..
They will all expect “free” transport back to their homeland when this all over!
expect free transport.
they will demand it.
when things cool off they will claim they were coerst into coming. we will be paying compensation for nausea , lack of food, lack of perrier.
the lawyers are likely handing out cards at the airport.
Israel Army Girls!
Never seen by MSM.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1669904/posts
“We are working in a diplomatic plan which would tackle the violence to which we attend and the roots of this violence”, it added. “It will be an international…”
Root causes? Oh, no. Condi Rice said that….
TBA this afternoon. Cover your ears?
free republic
CTV is finally starting to interview people who are thankful for the Canadian gov’t assistance in exiting Lebanon. Of course its intermingled with a disproportionaly large nunmber of complaints. Including the woman holding her child saying “if i knew it was going to be like this i would have stayed in Lebanon with the bombs” Your welcome ma’am.
Currently, CTV’s Robert Fife is starting to report that the evacualtion has gone for the most part smoothly and that “most people are praising Harper’s effort to evacuate them” So if most ppl are praising the effort why is it that 99% of the comments that make it onto CTV’s newscast are entirely negative and ungrateful? Which is it?
“The CBC was reporting last night that the feds had already been contacted by 32K.”
Yes, I saw that, too.
I think it is more accurate to report that officials estimate that about 32,000 Canadians in Lebanon have registered with the government. For the sake of the staffers, and especially the Canadians in the war zone, I hope the registeration system is very, very, accurate even if the current estimate is ballpark.
How many are seeking evacuation, and how many will actually evacuate if given the opportunity, we will find out in due course. In any case, I think already we can see that reports of 50,000 were overblown. That’s to be expected in crisis situation.
I wouldn’t be too hard on the distressed people now arriving. Venting is to be expected. Putting a camera on them and broadcasting the complaints as if that was “typical”, that’s irresponsible.
Most of these evacuees will realize that behind them there are many more who are still in the que. So to arrive safely in Canada (or in another safe haven) is to be very privileged.
Next, how best to help the homeless arrivals while the wait for stability to return to Lebanon? They have arrived and there’s no escaping the needs that will arise.
I agree with Chairm that the current situation must be adjudicated under the current statutory regime. The proper time to harvest the growth from the seeds of debate that have been planted in the name of the nature of national commitment is after the temporally local details of the latest event have been dealt with, but that doesn’t mean that the young plants that are now sprouting in that topic’s row shouldn’t be nurtured.
As a Canadian/Cypriot here are some home truths for the whiners – the ferry ride is maximum 10 hours to Cyprus – do you really need a f**cken leather couch and cold drinks if you are being evacuated from a war zone you CHOOSE to visit for a short hop across the Med ( hardly the crossing of the Queen Charlotte Straits in winter)
Secondly , under the international law the lefties so love , if you are a dual citizen , when you visit the country of your birth ,you have NO RIGHTS TO CONSULAR SERVICES from your “country of convenience” The fact that
Canada is prepared to honour even dual citizens with the privelege of being evacuated speaks volumes about why many of us love and honour Canada – all of the “Lebanese-Canadians” who whine and complain should piss off back to the Bekaa valley , I hear the weather is simply lovely – its raining shrapnel at the moment!
Ask Hezbollah if they are prepared to evacuate you in an airconditioned luxury liner – oh , I forget , they are too busy fighting Israel down to the last Lebanese woman and child.
God bless Canada
Hearing all the bitching, complaining and whining stories emanating from the evacuees, all I could think was:
Yep, they’re Canadians alright.
According to Jane Taber in the Globe & Mail
“Mr. MacKay […] emphasized that his focus is still on the safety of 30,000 to 40,000 Canadians there. About 4,000 Canadians have been evacuated; another 6,000 have indicated they want to leave.”
According to CBC-TV
“Approximately 10,000 of the estimated 50,000 Canadians in Lebanon want to be removed from the war zone.”
Looks like about 10,000 is the immediately expected size of the Canadian evacuation.
Also, Canada appears to have the largest contingent of citizens (including dual-citizens) in Lebanon. Is this due to the francaphonie angle and the 30 year-old ties with the ex-pat population in Quebec?
* * *
And:
“Approximately 34,000 Filipinos work in Lebanon. Plans for their departure by ship are underway.”
“[Sri Lanka] is planning … to rescue the first batch of 200 migrant workers, out of an estimated 80,000.”
“Eight thousand of the 17,000 French citizens in Lebanon asked to be taken out. So far, 2,000 have been taken out.”
“It is thought that approximately 8,000 of the 25,000 Americans in Lebanon want to be transported out. So far, about 3,000 have been taken out, although 6,000 Americans were expected to have been out by July 21.”
* * *
The Canadian effort seems to be on part with the French and American evacuations. Far better than the Sri Lankan and Fillipino can do with their resources. Hopefully, if aid is need on the spot, or if refugees need longterm protection, NATO can organize quickly with American, British, and European resources made available. Looks like that is shaping up already.