Subject:  New BS to Consider |
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Sleepster
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Date Posted: 16:50:42 07/28/06 Fri
From the Calgary Sun.
http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Bell_Rick/2006/07/21/1695087.html
"Fri, July 21, 2006
Sudden citizens By RICK BELL
I can hear those Canadians of convenience from all the way over in Beirut.
Look at me, I'm a Canadian. Look, look, look at my passport. It says
CANADA.
And so it does. The people I'm talking about are those passport holders
who don't live in Canada, don't work in Canada, don't pay taxes in Canada.
People who have freely chosen to pledge their primary if not sole
allegiance to the flag with the cedar in the middle and not the maple leaf.
They are not tourists or emigres caught in the crossfire while on a
temporary visit to the Middle East. They're full-time Lebanese, voting
with their feet. But now, when the doo-doo hits the fan, these Canadians
of convenience are Canadians all the way. No. 1 citizens. True patriot love,
glowing hearts, standing on guard and all that jazz.
And Canada ... well, Canada is Canada. The Canadians who live here
and pay taxes here and who see here as the place they want to call home
not only let the Canadians of convenience hitch a ride out of the lunacy of
Lebanon, they pay for it. You pay for it. We pay for it. We do this because
the individuals in question hold Canadian passports and the eggheads
choking on their skim lattes say it would be shocking, appalling and
insensitive to insist these people pay their own freight, even though they
haven't thrown any money into the pot covering the tab for this mass
exodus, the biggest evacuation since Dunkirk in the Second World War
and a bill expected to be in the hundreds of millions.
Garth Turner, the speaks-his-mind MP for Halton, a riding containing the
lovely Ontario town of Milton and parts of Oakville and Burlington, has
been one public figure with enough guts to pose a few brainteasers about
what is up. He calls it "waking up and checking the common sense meter."
No surprise. I met Garth in the last election as he knocked on doors of
homes on Burlington's Butternut Crescent and the man does not mince his
words. He is willing to even challenge the PM if duty calls and his
constituents want action. Well, Garth's constituents are getting in touch
with him on this deal. One local man is in Lebanon with his family, waiting
like so many others to get out, and who does he see getting on the ship
and getting on gratis? Some folks who live in Lebanon 24/7. You can see
their house from the point of departure. "We are talking about people,
some who went back to Lebanon after the last conflict. They don't pay
taxes here, they don't live here, they don't have a loyalty here. We're not
their first country. They have a first country," explains the
parliamentarian,
who describes himself as "just a little soldier asking who passes before
they get to the public treasury. "That's where they have their house, their
car, their bank account, their dentist. I ask: You moved out of this country
and you're not contributing here. Why would we come and get you? Or
why would we do it for free?
"I'm getting a huge reaction, and not from racists who hate people with
brown skin. The issue is: What the hell are we doing? People scratch
their heads when they hear about 40,000 Canadians in Lebanon. Are
there really 40,000 tourists? That's a hell of a lot of tourists." In
fact,
many aren't tourists. Garth says he's heard total bookings to Lebanon
from all of Canada for the whole summer is about 14,000 and we're only
halfway through the season. Do the rough math.
The MP also says nobody had any idea there would be so many people
wanting to leave. No one calculated accurately all the non-residents with
Canadian passports. "We had no idea we would be stuck in this web.
And now there's a precedent being set so Canadians who are not even
residents can be sent halfway around the world for free."
Then, to add to any outrage simmering among the citizenry, the stories
circulate of how some of those being rescued at our expense are whining
because it was hot or there wasn't enough water or someone puked
because they were seasick or there were no baggage handlers or the
authorities weren't swift enough getting certain sorry butts out of harm's
way. "It just sends people over the top," says Garth. "I'm going to
excuse this reaction, because they are in an agitated and emotional
state. Maybe it's not the right time to have this argument, but it's not
going away." Then again, this is Canada and the people with the pull
never seem to have those common-sense meters."
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