It Takes A Woman....

To put things into prospective. I have read all the media "unbiased" reporters on this issue, but NONE have stated the issue, or lack thereof as well as this blogger, and she's a Liberal to boot!

I worked as a Ministerial aide for a few years, and even as a card-carrying Liberal, I cannot condemn the Minister for disagreeing with her public service advisors. Here’s why:

NB:
1. The “government” is Cabinet, made of of Ministers of the Crown. The public service, despite what the population thinks most of the time, is NOT the government.
2. Public service, or “ministry” bureaucrats, provide ministers with recommendations and analysis of options, but their long-term priorities (remember, governments come and go, the public service is forever) do not necessarily match the government-of-the-day’s priorities. What has happened to Min. Oda is a reflection of that.
3. Ministers also look at all decisions they have to make through a political lens. You might not like that lens, but they are the government and if you don’t like it enough, you cast your vote for the opposition in the next election.

Read the whole blog post, and leave her a positive comment. This is an excellent post, and states the facts without being partisan.

As a woman, I am upset about the whole Oda issue because all I see is a female parliamentarian being attacked for nothing. It has gone beyond the actual issue and has become a feeding frenzy by the opposition and the media. The use of the picture of Bev Oda standing outside and smoking was the final straw. To read comments about her wearing those sunglasses when she had to because of her eye surgery, showed me the worse in people.

The losers in this whole episode are those who viciously attacked an elected Minister of our country. Just because you have immunity to say anything you want in the "House", does not mean that you don't have to think about the person you are attacking. It makes you look like a$$holes for doing so. Bev Oda, is a person, with all the feelings you have, and to be verbally attacked in Parliament and by the media must be devastating for her. You won't even let her escape to have a smoke in private.

Not only do I expect the members of Parliament who have been attacking Minister Oda to apologize, I expect the media to apologize as well. The opposition has the job of opposing policies, it does not have the right to verbally assault anyone. It is juvenile and makes you look like weak little tyrants.

No wonder the female vote is shifting to the Conservatives. Maybe they feel safer with the Conservatives because they are supportive of families and not known to attack female MP's. The other parties seem to think it is okay to make stuff up and then hound a female member of Parliament. Minister Oda, and all the other Conservatives females should start wearing T-shirts with targets on them during question period.

It feels like the media is making this a game. A game of let's see how much power we have to influence voters, let's see if we can make the Conservative polling numbers plummet. This is not a game, Bev Oda is a person. As a female all I see is a female under attack by old white guys. Why is sexism still okay?

h/t MaryT

Hug A Thug, I prefer Jail A Thug!

Funny how First Nations people can beat a man in Caladonia and nothing is done. But let a shop owner grab and hold a thief and it's not the thief who is charged it's the shop owner! This really disgusts me.

Our Liberal justice system is screwed up. The criminals are coddled, and the law abiding citizens are charged. If this is a case of making an example of a citizen who takes the law into his own hands, then I suggest as citizens that we carry weapons to protect ourselves, as the police are useless. It saddens me to no end that our police, people I used to look up to and respect, have become such political pawns.

Rex, let's them have it in this article. You go Rex!

I found myself thinking of that limited code, and the severity of its particular judgment, because of David Chen — the immigrant Chinese grocer who fell so painfully and bizarrely afoul of the law here in Toronto, and whose trial, fitfully, was undertaken this week.

All of Toronto and most of the country knows his story by now. How he spotted a chronic shoplifter-thief (on the thief’s second visit to his store in a single morning), chased him, caught him and threw him bound in a van while he (Chen) waited for the police to show up.

What followed had most of the country in a fit of anger and puzzlement when it got out. The police charged the young, hard labouring, non-thief, Mr. Chen — with kidnapping, forcible confinement, assault and carrying a dangerous weapon. (Chen was carrying boxcutters — a normal tool for a man who works in a grocery store.) Anyone with a still functioning mind who’s heard of this case cannot understand what the Toronto police and prosecutors were thinking when they laid this raft of original charges. Apparently outrage and mockery — I can’t think what else — led to the police dropping the kidnapping and “possession of boxcutter” charges, but they insisted on proceeding to trial on the other “offences.”

What a disgrace for our police and the prosecutor who should have dropped the charges outright. The expense for Mr. Chen in defending himself should be paid for by the police force that charged him, let it come out of their budget. My Canada does not include prosecuting innocent people, and letting the thugs go free. A more disgraceful display of how our justice system is broken has never been seen before. The Liberal "hug a thug" mentality is at work and thriving in Ontario. Funny how the First Nations people can get away with beating up an innocent man, but an innocent shopkeeper gets charged for apprehending a thief, and the thief walks free!

Hug a thug? I prefer Jail a thug!