Tag: minister

Harper On Citizenship and The Potential Consequences for Cases like Khadr’s

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper sounded an unrepentant note Friday about his Conservative government’s failed efforts to keep former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr behind bars.

– Harper not backing down on Omar Khadr: He ‘pled guilty to very grave crimes, including murder’

Harper’s desire to revoke citizenship for “convicted” terrorists appears to come from a reluctance to defend and rescue Canadians abroad like Omar Khadr, Maher Arar, and others, simply in order to avoid political snafus. This selfish, unloving, and reckless abandonment of responsibility for our own citizens is reprehensible. If Harper had his way, Khadr would have been lost with little chance of reform in the American military justice system. “Khadr, now 28, pleaded guilty in October 2010 before a widely discredited military commission to five war crimes — including murder in the death of Speer, a U.S. special forces soldier. He was 15 at the time of the incident…and human rights groups have long considered him a child soldier whose treatment violated international law.”

omarkhadr2_1280You can see what kind of person Omar Khadr is now and discover the man who has been fighting for his freedom for years in the CBC documentary “Omar Khadr: Out of the Shadows“.

 

maher-ararAnd we should never forget Maher Arar, and others, who were tortured in foreign nations and we, in part, were the ones who sent them there.

Nitty Gritty: From Mayhem to Ministry. A Testimony.

I play guitar with my church and, each week, I need to go online to find song chords. While searching this week, I came across this website, Musings of  a Minister’s Wife, after some Google results turned up guitar chords for her ebook of chord sheets. My curiosity was piqued by the domain name “musingsofaministerswife.com.” I thought to myself, ‘what would a minister’s wife blog about?’. Somehow I got over to the About page and that’s where things got really interesting when it started with this: In 2003, my husband and I quit relying on each other to keep our marriage together and started relying on God.  Wow!  What a change!  We are now bearing bigger fruit in a ministry of our own. I kept reading and was very pleasantly surprised by a couple who went through some amazing ordeals and came out on the other side loving God more. Here’s a taste of their story,

I first met Jimmy at work. He was a few months away from being married. I was in my third year of (a bad) marriage. I didn’t like Jimmy. He was cocky, so very sure of himself, so “I’m better than everyone else” of himself. Instant turnoff. Besides, I was married. We didn’t talk much. He stayed in his cubicle, and I stayed in mine.

As time wore on, my job blended with Jimmy’s, and we began to see each other on a daily basis. We worked together in the tech department along with 2 other people. We all went out to lunch several times a month as a group. One day, the other 2 weren’t available. But I was hungry. And I was lonely. And he was nice to me. And funny. He opened doors. He laughed at my jokes. He was getting cuter by the day. He treated me like a gentleman treats a lady, which was far from the treatment I was getting at home. Which Jimmy knew. He was all too familiar with decoding finger-print sized bruises on women’s arms. He was all too familiar with being lonely himself.

We had a nice lunch. It was our first time alone. Nothing happened. It was just a friendly lunch.

But there is such wisdom in not allowing yourself to be alone with a man.

Especially if you’re in a rocky marriage. Especially if he’s in a rocky marriage with a baby on the way.

Remember that part about Jimmy being far, far away from God? He wasn’t the only one.

You can read the whole story over at From Mayhem to Ministry.

Motion 312 – Defining the fetus as human

Check out Pass 312.org, the central website for information about an MP Motion in Canada for changing the criminal code to identify an unborn child as human (contrary to what the law currently says). Here’s a little bit of info from the site,

1. Canada’s Criminal code defines unborn children as non human beings!

2. One brave MP Stephen Woodworth has brought forward Motion 312 in an attempt to evaluate that law and possibly change it.

3. Every political party in Canada is opposing Motion 312. Prime Minister Stephen Harper made it clear that he will vote against it.

4. An estimated 100,000 plus letters and emails have been sent to our MPs this summer urging them to support Motion 312. And yet the word from MPs is that it will not pass unless they hear more from Canadians in support of it.

5. There are over 4,000,000 evangelical Christians in Canada. That means 4 million people who have no excuse for ignoring the abuse of our unborn children (Psalm82:2-4). Nearly 4 million people, however, who have no idea what Motion 312 is and have not yet contacted their MP in favor of it.

Not sure if a fetus is a human? Check out this article.

Contact your MP. Who’s your MP?

For more third party information about the motion check this article.

PMO Issues The Order: Canadian DMCA Bill Within Six Weeks

PMO Issues The Order: Canadian DMCA Bill Within Six Weeks

PMO Issues The Order: Canadian DMCA Bill Within Six Weeks

Months of public debate over the future of Canadian copyright law were quietly decided earlier this week, when sources say the Prime Minister’s Office reached a verdict over the direction of the next copyright bill.  The PMO was forced to make the call after Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore and Industry Minister Tony Clement were unable to reach consensus on the broad framework of a new bill.  As I reported last week, Moore has argued for a virtual repeat of Bill C-61, with strong digital locks provisions similar to those found in the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act and a rejection of a flexible fair dealing approach. Consistent with earlier comments on the need for a forward-looking, flexible approach, Clement argued for changes from C-61.

Join the Facebook group, Fair Copyright for Canada, and write your MP a letter!

Harper is not listening!

Harper is using dictatorship tactics to strong-arm in American DMCA style copyright legislation. Don’t let him get away with it!

A quick google for “dmca controversy” will get you all you need to know about why the American DMCA is bad for everyone involved.