justme

And let's not forget that if the Liberals had their way, Canada wouldn't have any tanks at all.

Actually, from what I've read, they decommissioned them because they went with nuclear subs. As for the objective, the Canadian government has repeatedly stated that defending sovereignty in the north is a priority. If that's the case, nuclear subs would make more sense for Canada as well.

No, because the lower court had already rejected the recommendation of the higher court only months earlier, and reconfirmed the death penalty. They may or may not reach the same conclusion in a new trial, but in the mean time, he says he's been tortured. What power does Canada have to do something about this? None. Saudi Arabia is a sovereign country and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not apply there. Canada (or any other country -- including the US -- for that matter) cannot guarantee that you'll enjoy all the rights and freedoms that you have as a citizen anywhere in the world. The so-called rights and freedoms in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms can even be a little fuzzy at home, but I digress. All the Prime Minister can do is make a request basically, and it's up to Saudi Arabia (or in Omar's case, America) to agree to the request or reject it. An individual must accept some responsibility for risks taken, which is why I'd never set foot in Saudi Arabia. And on that note, if America is so bad, why do so many Canadians travel there?

Can anyone direct me to the 50 page thread that the people who say they are defending Canadian rights or human rights have made regarding the Canadian facing beheading in Saudi Arabia? I can't find it.

If he was accused of a crime in Canada, yes. The Toronto 18 are facing the rule of law with due process, no? Of course, whether or not the sentences are tough enough is another debate....

There's nothing silly about the difference between Islamic fundamentalism, which the Khadr family is firmly routed in, and western society. An Islamic fundamentalist doesn't give a damn about democracy, individual liberty, and certainly not a man made legal system. To them, the Quran is the word of god, the law, and should govern every aspect of life. What does the Quran say? Here's an example: It doesn't matter if the US pulls out of the Middle East completely, if NATO pulls out of Afghanistan, or if Israelis give up all of their land. There will still be Islamic fundamentalists that hate people that are not Muslims. To put this to the test, all one has to do is look at the example set in the Middle East. How many Jews and Christians do you find in Saudi Arabia? Converting from Islam to another religion can carry a death penalty. It is a left vs. right issue because it's the left that opened the doors to anyone and everyone, and then created hate speech laws to silence dissent -- ironically the hateful comments coming from Islamic fundamentalists are free from hate speech laws. Be it 9-11, the 7-7 London bombings, Toronto 18, etc, it's quite literally blowing up in your face or coming close to it. The people responsible were middle class and living in the west. And when someone asks, why do they hate us, it's always our fault. It's never because of their religious views. It has nothing to do with children in muslim countries being taught to hate christians and jews, or Saudi Arabia, a country based on religion, funding mosques in western countries that preach hate. The Khadr family's involvement with Al Quaeda doesn't matter because they managed to get Canadian citizenship, which should raise questions about the immigration system, but hey, stick your head a little deeper into the sand. I don't know about you, but I make no appoligies to people that do not like British common law, nor value democracy or individual liberty, and I think there are people out there that are far more deserving of your concern.

You can keep him. Instead of trying to bring him back, Canada should be trying to remove the rest of the family. With all the people in the world that would love to live in a country like Canada, we don't need people that hate it. Sadly, sympathy for the enemy is nothing new to lefties.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100111/canadians_sentence_100111/20100111?hub=TopStoriesV2 I'm sure this sort of thing will work wonders for Canada's reputation, but let's sweep it under the carpet as long as they're a solid voting block for the Liberals in Toronto.

That's one big load of BS. If anything, wealth is being transferred to developing countries through outsourcing of jobs and bringing in cheap labor -- which then transfers money back to the country of origin -- for jobs that can't be outsourced via immigration. If America really wanted to take wealth from another country, Canada would have either ceased to exist or would have been reduced to a third world country long ago. Not a slight to people in the Canadian Armed Forces, but it's nowhere near the size that would be necessary to hold back an American attack. As for the American banks that you keep going on about, Canadian banks are actually doing better, and while some leftists like to argue that America is screwing Canada over economically, by almost every measure Canada is doing better right now despite the fact that it does more than 80% of its trade with the US. The truth is that the countries with poor circumstances for which you blame America often have nobody to blame but themselves. Maybe if they pulled their heads out of their asses and stopped engaging in things like tribal warfare and genocide, and instead built a place worth living in they wouldn't have to sit around blaming a successful country for all their problems.

And why do you suppose those immigrants chose to live in America instead of China? Why is it that millions of people are willing to risk everything, including their lives, for a chance to live in America instead of China? Also, is it not insulting to an immigrant if you refer to them as such instead of a citizen of the country they made their home in an attempt to discredit the success of that country?

And the long list of American inventions, some of which make it possible for people to make their arguments here, have nothing to do with America's success.... Reminds me of a scene in the movie Black Rain where a Japanese guy says, "we build the machines; we build the future..." to which Michael Douglas' character replies, "and if there was one of you guys that had an original idea, you'd be so tight you couldn't even pull it out of your ass."

Hardly.... China, India and the US are the major sources. I mean, compare Canada's population of 32 million with a country that has more than a billion people that's going through the equivalent of our industrial revolution on a much larger scale. China puts a new coal plant online every week. The west already has infrastructure built while China and India are building from scratch basically. If they want to be world leaders, here is their chance by creating and using new clean technology, but instead, they follow past examples from the west. Which is worse, holding on to infrastructure based on petroleum that's already built, or following that example to build new infrastructure while knowing the consequences? This is one of the reasons why I'm sick hearing about China and India being the new super powers. America is a super power not simply because of its wealth and military capability, but because of the ingenuity that created it. China and India rely on technology created elsewhere and cheap labor. They are pseudo powers not super powers.

You mean the Liberals that wanted to form a coalition to defeat the Conservatives because they didn't think the Conservatives were spending enough?

What's to cut? The Navy consists of a couple supply ships and a few destroyers that are about 30 years old, and a dozen frigates. Almost all of the F-18s in the Air Force would fit in one American aircraft carrier and they're over 25 years old. There are about 60,000 people in the entire Canadian armed forces -- that's Navy, Air Force and Army. The money that's been spent on the armed forces in recent years has been to address the rusting out of it thanks to people that think like you. Canada has been cutting the military budget for decades and you can't cut much more and still have a viable military. More like you should be thankful that they do what you haven't got the guts to do.

National Defence is actually a responsibility of the federal government unlike tons of other crap that you probably support. Moreover, the lower the budget, the more Canada has to lean on the US. You bitch about sucking off the public tit, which IS a stupid comment btw, but it's ok to get your neighbor to pick up your tab, and, of course, you're probably the type that likes to sit around bitching about that neighbor.

Something tells me that he likes to deliberately misinterpret things.

Personally, I respect honesty more than political correctness, and thus I think the changes that the Conservatives have made are spot on. If the Canadian military and the monarchy offend any immigrants, perhaps they should find somewhere else to live.

First Nations may have been here first, but did they create the economy, infrastructure, etc, that everyone - regardless of how long they've been here - benefits from today? Without rules, that which we all benefit from will be open to abuse.

Yeah, don't let the fact that Democrat Senator Robert Byrd was a member of KKK, or that it was Prime Minister John Diefenbaker that gave indians the right to vote without condition stop you from arguing that conservatives are racist and liberals aren't. If Liberals are so great and the natural governing party of Canada -- blah blah blah -- why didn't a Liberal Prime Minister give indians the right to vote without condition?

Hyperbole, but anyways.... How is it a benefit to either Canada or immigrants to have people come here with degrees and work in low wage jobs because they can't get their education recognized? Another thing, Dalton McGuinty said the other day that the next generation of Canadians will have to be 1.5 times more productive than the previous generation in order to pay for everything. Some immigrants have a hard time keeping up with the pace now let alone more. It'll be interesting to see how many of them will want to work that much harder to pay for your social programs. There is another option: smaller government.

Saying so doesn't make it so.

If you mean people from third world countries that refuse to speak english, lack the work ethic that previous immigrants had, and often have views on life that are antithetical to western values, absolutely.

While you're looking for some sort of equivalency, I ask you, would you rather live under Sharia law or Common law? Inquiring minds want to know.

When the protesters are waving the flag of what Canada officially recognizes as a terrorist group in support of said terrorist group, I disagree with you. I recall reading about an Australian tourist's disgust by it in the Toronto Star, and quite frankly, I share her disgust. By the way, the question was asked if I would live somewhere other than Canada, and the answer is that I think I would be quite happy in Australia. It's something that I've thought about, and might do at some point in the future. Not that I dislike Canada, but I also really like Australia and they have similar living standards.