“When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" Martin Luther King Jr.
Wonderful words that the world has failed to listen to. We can not look back, only forward, and make sure that we do not make the same mistakes our forefathers made, but remember the times they lived in, and realize the times before us and our children are different. The times are different, but life lessons can not be ignored. We shudder now at the thought of slaves, and how they were treated as sub-human beings, and we think we are better than that, because we have fallen into the progressive trap. Progressives are all about freedom for those who think like them, dare to disagree, and you get swarmed by the progressives from hell. They have no morals and hate those who do.
They think swinger's clubs, abortion and marijuana are what freedom is all about. They want us all to think the same way, and get ticked off when we refuse to agree with their way of life. We become targets because they are loud and obnoxious and they lie. They lie about global warming, while they fly to Bali in polar bear suits, so they can be seen to do something. They do nothing. They plant no trees. Yet they are powerful because they prey on our guilt.
Not happening here, I am way greener than Suzuki could ever hope to be, but I am not tooting my own horn like he does, and I am not lying to gain money from people. That is what disgusts me, they take money from the most vulnerable, and line their own pockets. Gore went from 2 million to 100 million, something stinks to high heaven.
What started this rant? Ruby Dhalla. She gave up her shadow minister position today. Who cares, it was a shadow position, it wasn't real. No biggy off her nose. What we need to concentrate on is that she allegedly kept slaves, and thought is was her right to do so. Let the courts decide, but it doesn't look good for Dhalla.
14 comments:
"What we need to concentrate on is that she allegedly kept slaves, and thought is was her right to do"
I read the whole article. Where does it say that she kept slaves?
You're right, Hunter. The term "slave" can mean many things. If what the nannies said is true, then she did treat them like slaves. If she held their passports, she would have limited their freedom of movement and that is akin to slave-holding.
Somebody who is either antagonistic, narrow-minded, or incapable of understanding any concept which is not literal would not see it that way but...those people are not worth considering.
What bothers me most is that the Ontario government sat on this issue and did not address the complaints even though it was the Ontario government which touts the great things they are doing to protect these very same people.
What makes the whole matter noteworthy is the fact that it is The Star which is pursuing it. The Star is not pro-Conservative and it surprised and shocked me that it would run this story.
It is a sad testament to our "progressive" society that we buy produce which was picked by illegal labour in the states and even here in Canada. It is a sad testament that Canada crows mightily about immigrant rights and yet we have doctors driving taxis, nannies who are paid below minimum wage, farm workers who are paid less than any Canadian but are desperate...the list goes on and on.
As I've always said - left-wingers talk the talk but right-wingers walk the walk.
Oh, and I'm like you - way greener than Suzuki ever was or ever will be.
SQ , Do you need a stinkin journalist to tell you what to THINK?
Think about it!
Blame Crash: good one. SQ comes here only to be obstreperous and odious. He splits hairs for the sake of annoying Hunter. It's really quite scary the way he is obsessed with Hunter.
E of E, Gayle is the same way as SQ. I'm surprised she hasn't chimed in yet, demanding that Hunter prove Ruby was a 'slave owner'. They are very quick to belittle anyone who might be one millimeter to the right of center, but quite content to plug her ears and scream 'la-la-la, I can't hear your' when a left/lib/dipper is caught with thier pants down.
It will be very tough for anyone to 'nuance' or 'grey area' this whole Slave-gate affair. I mean, come on now, washing cars, shining shoes for 16 hours a day?
Ruby obviously has dilusions of being a Bollywood diva, which she ain't. She (and Iggy) are just the quintessential liberal: narcisistic with an entitlement complex and a need to rule over the lesser people.
Let's not make this issue about Esque. Ignore it!
Abuse of immigrant workers, especially from south Asia countries, is a very serious problem. They work hard, keep their mouths shut and accept any behavior out of fear of losing their jobs and "being sent home"! To actually withhold their passports is tantamount to taking away their identity and making them nobodies or "slaves".
This is a major scandal, with cover-ups to boot. Wait for the racist allegations to crop up to endeavor to shut the whole issue down.
The issue will end up being, 1) how these ladies were treated as slave labour but 2) the illegal handling of deductions will be more significant, imho.
If the passport allegations are correct, that is tantamount to 'slavery'/'hostage'.
The process to legally employ these folks is critical and certainly not a cakewalk. To abuse their trust and rights, is unforgivable. They essentially are not paid enough to pursue other options, i.e held in emotional and physical 'hostage'.
To get a soft cloth/hand wash car wash= 50. to 100. Detailing, much more.
Cleaning services= 25.-50./hr.
Shoe shines? Give me a break, that is insulting!!
If anyone here reads "lefty" blogs, I would like your biased opinion.
This post is sparked by the Dhalla case, and then does a "pattern" rant. By pattern, I refer to a whole laundry list of things you don't like, that are all claimed as being part of the pattern of progressive thinking.
Do you see this on "lefty" blogs? For example, consider the Maxime Bernier case. He potentially breached national security. Was this portrayed anywhere as typical conservative thinking, part of the pattern of evils that conservatives advocate? I only saw Bernier lampooned over his biker chick girlfriend's attire and he was eventually removed from Cabinet for the security lapse. But I didn't see the "conservatives are hypocrites, and hate Canada" routine on that. Did I miss it?
I ask this, because the Dhalla case seems similar. I highly doubt the confiscated passports situation is as alleged. The passports were taken for use in preparing paperwork, perhaps they had to be sent in with the paperwork? No word that I could see on how long the passports were actually out of the nannies' hands.
As for the rest, she is responsible, though it seems others in her family were the ones mainly dealing with the nannies. I've never had or used nannies, but I don't think the situation is unusual. The nanny industry is characterized by low pay and lots of hours. For a live in, there is the compensation of having free room and board, while still getting paid. But living in means you are likely treated as being on call much of the time. Nannies typically leave the house on their free time to avoid this.
The situation for nannies is almost as bad as stay at home moms' situations. Try calculating the stay at home mom's effective hourly rate.
As for sitting on the issue, I blame Wynn and not Fonseca, only because these complaints were heard in her constituency office. She would be acting as the local MPP and can be expected to follow up. As Ministers though, they are expected to manage and lead their Ministries, but a complaint does not usually get handled by a Minister. She probably thought Fonseca would look into it, but that is not really his job as Minister. There is a complaints process, I see no indication it was followed, so the fact these Ministers did nothing is not a dereliction of their duties. Ministers are not supposed to intervene in individual cases, they are usually censured if they do.
LS ... I think Bernier was treated the same, from the stand point ... " geez how stupid!!" from all parties including conservatives. He only hurt himself tho (the female involved too but in different ways - complicit publicity).
In the Dhalla case there are "vulnerable immigrants" involved - employer/employee - power/subservient - relationships that can / should lead to all sorts of questions. speculation will run rampant for a time as to what really took place.
In my opinion, we "righties" need not cast the first stone but can gloat a little that it has happened to the other side!!
Also LS, the allegations here are of a LEGAL nature. There are new laws and protocol in place to avoid these unpleasant, advantage taking situations. The 'employer' must also pay the CPP,UI,income tax etc required by law.
Like any job, you have a 'job description' and caring for a adult senior, would not include the tasks that have allegedly occurred.There is the possibility that 3 or 4 laws were broken.
Maxine Bernier, did something careless and stupid but not illegal.
That's right...Maxine Bernier was only involved with NATIONAL SECURITY! This is strictly an employee/employer relationship. Let's face it, there are lots of bad employers. Nobody screamed "slave owners" at WalMart when they were requiring people to work without paying them. I guess it's different if yer llbral...
LS - you made some good points and I will address them but first let me assure you that on one particular Lib blog, the whole Bernier case was taken as being typical neo-con and the blog host and commenters took it as a great opportunity to slam our PM for everything under the sun. Some Lib blogs are civil and others are quite "out there".
As for your points: Yes, Dhalla's family was more involved but...as a public figure in Parliament, I believe it is uncumbent to ensure that one is totally disassociated with any behaviour which could be embarrassing, illegal, or optically negative. She is an intelligent lady and I am sure she knew what was going on in her household. With the third complaint now filed...well, it looks really bad for her.
Fonseca and Wynn - technically, it wasn't their jobs to take action but...they were there and although not technically theirs to solve, they should have taken some action. The people who attended did so in good faith and now the whole thing has blown up in everybody's faces. They should have passed the info along to the appropriate people. It does look like they sat on it or ignored it and hoped it would go away. The forum appears to be lip service.
Let me put it to you this way - if an anti-Harper, Lib-friendly paper like The Star will go after a Lib MP, then it must be bad.
My late father was a civil servant in the Manitoba government. He and my mother impressed upon us kids to be above-board and circumspect at all times. And this was in the days long before ATIP. Dhalla should have made absolutely sure that her family followed the rules to the letter.
SQ, quit being so angry. What the heck does Walmart have to do with this?
Comparing the 2/3 situations is ridiculous and be sure, I personally have NO TIME for ANYONE, conservative included, found guilty of these allegations.
This MP has a responsibility to walk the walk, that she accuses others, of not doing.
You should be outraged too.
Ah, Bec, you hit the nail on the head:
You should be outraged too.That is the problem with Liberals going back to adscam, strippergate, swaniscam, and all the other Liberal scandals. Supporters like SQ will always blame anyone but the Liberals. They gladly forget their morals, and support the party no matter what.
Conservatives on the other hand reduced the party to two MP's and redefined the party, it took us ten years, but we can now be proud of our party. Liberals are too lacking in backbones to actually make their party accountable to the people, that is why the Liberals will continue to limp along as opposition.
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