What they meant to say.
Posted by turdslinger on December 18th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
It’s an assumption by some and a fear of others that yes, the Conservatives haven’t seemed so horrible, but if they ever had a majority we’d see what they really think.
And sometimes we do have those little moments where the darkness slips into the light.
And today, courtesy of Jason Kenney, we have another such moment:
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has accused Christian aid group KAIROS of being anti-Semitic and disclosed that’s why the group suddenly lost its federal funding.
In a speech in Jerusalem about what he said was Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government’s leading position combatting the enemies of Israel, Kenney lumped KAIROS – a Toronto-based ecumenical group that works for social justice abroad – in with what he described as other anti-Semitic organizations.
He said this is why Ottawa recently ended 35 years of funding for KAIROS, which encompasses Anglican, Catholic and other mainstream Canadian Christian churches.
“We have de-funded organizations, most recently, like KAIROS who are taking a leadership role in the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign” against Israel, he told the Global Forum for combatting anti-Semitism.
That wouldn’t seem quite as terrible if it weren’t for this:
KAIROS was stunned by Kenney’s remarks because International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda told the public and Parliament the group lost its funding because of shifting priorities at the Canadian International Development Agency.
There seem to be two main possibilities here. One is that Kenney went off the politically vague message of “shifting priorities,” in which case there was an awareness of this being inappropriate. Two is that he was bragging about taking away the funding.
In any case, the identification of being anti-policies towards Israel with being anti-Israel is stupid (I’m against certain domestic Canadian policies, but I wouldn’t consider myself anti-Canada). Then, the identification of being anti-Israel with being anti-Semitic, that’s just not doing anybody any favours.
I hate everybody.
A bit more thought at Impolitical.
