It seems that the Conservative Party of Canada has compiled a list of people under the category of enemies of Israel, we discover this as the result of an all candidates debate attended by CPC MP Joyce Bateman who let the cat out of the bag.
Bateman, the Conservative MP from Winnipeg South Centre who is running for re-election, was sitting onstage at the Asper Jewish Community Campus in Tuxedo for an all-candidates forum hosted by B'nai Brith.
Up until that point in the evening, the crowd of 100 or so had been exceedingly polite and well-behaved. Bateman and the other candidates -- Liberal Jim Carr, New Democrat Matt Henderson and Green party candidate Andrew Park -- had performed admirably, tackling questions about the movement to boycott Israel, domestic terrorist threats, re-establishing diplomatic relations with Iran, poverty and the economy.
It was all going well until Bateman piqued the ire of the crowd when she starting reading off a list of names from the Liberal campaign -- volunteers, paid staff workers and candidates alike -- who had been identified by the Tories as "enemies" of Israel.
As she got to Andrew Leslie -- the decorated retired lieutenant-general from the Canadian Armed Forces running for the Liberals in Ottawa-Orleans -- the crowd erupted with shouts of "shame." I, as the moderator, was forced at that point to step in to protect Bateman from the surging anger in the audience.
It is hard in retrospect to escape the feeling the "enemies of Israel" blacklist Bateman was reading had a McCarthyesque blush to it. The names were read quickly and without any information establishing the veracity of the charges against the individuals named. It was a truly creepy moment.
But to be fair, Bateman was only doing what she had been told to do. This was not an impetuous act; it was part of a carefully scripted strategy to use Israel as a wedge issue to capture majority support from Canadian Jews.
It's not the first "enemies" list Stephen Harper has had compiled, those amoung us with memories longer than the last news cycle will recall back in July of 2013 learning about a directive from the PMO for other Ministers offices to compile a list of "enemy stakeholders".
This is, IMO, further evidence of the 'you're either with us or you're against us' mentality that the Conservative Party of Canada, the Prime Minister of Canada, and The Harper Government holds. Cast your memory back to February of 2012 when an MP questioning Harper Government proposed legislation was told by that Government that he, and by extension any others who disagreed with the legislation, could "either stand with us or with the child pornographers" because obviously lack of support for the legislation was support for pedophiles - as disgusting as that comment was, and as McCarthyesque as the "enemy stakeholders" list was, the new "Enemies of Israel" is far worse because they are now publicly naming those they consider enemies.
And that my friends should worry every Canadian.
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[–] 1Sorry_SOB ago
Wake up sheeple.