Anyway Racism is just as much a problem in Canada as it is in America. With Stephen Harper in power many racists appear to feel emboldened by the Harper Regime so they can say whatever they want about Non-Anglo Saxon Canadians and spread their pernicious hatered against all those Canadians who are not Christian. So much for multicultualism and acceptance of French Canadians or Quebecois as equals. Like their American counter-parts they froth at the mouth over any Canadian speaking any language other than English.
Racism in Canada " Ragheads " Gear up Motors
Yes, Virginia- there are racists in Canada who find the use of terms like " Ragheads " just part of common ordinary speech. These poor souls also like their American counterparts see nothing wrong with lumping all Arabs, Afghans & Muslims into the same category. They are xenophobic racists who don't care if they insult all Muslims including Canadian Muslims. These racists are part of Stephen Harper base though he likes to downplay such support. His government is not as crude & outspoken as his mentor 's regime in the United States because Harper only has a minority government and therefore can not claim to have a mandate to push through his own ultra-Conservative Religious Right Neocon agenda. But if he gets a majority government or increases his number of seats in parliament then we might be headed the way of the Americans. His party is racist, sexist, anti-feminist, anti-Environment, anti-Gay and anti-Quebec. Like Bush & Co. Harper believes in the War on Terror and if he had his way we would have troops in Iraq. Instead he had to settle for Afghanistan and this he was able to do because he could go in with NATO. But NATO is or was not acting independently of America but rather has to a great extent become another arm of American Military Might. So Canadians end up in the stew of American Empire building. If Afghanistan was such a clear cut case of necessary intervention then it should have been carried out under a United Nations mandate. But if it were under the UN then we couldn't hand over prisoners to the Americans or Afghan troops to be abused & tortured by them. And the various reports done on Afghanistan's human rights abuses shows that the present government is not improving the situation in that country for women or Non-Muslims or those who object in any way to the current regime or local Taliban or Drug Warlords. The last two years Afghanistan has had a bumper crop of opium . The opium production and export continues while the rights of the average Afghan citizen continues to detiorate. We like the Russians before us are in a no win situation. But is the real point of this war to protect the flow of gas and oil and to prevent the Russians and others from having easy access to oil & gas . So who is it that we are fighting. Soon we will be fighting a war against Pakistan since the Pakistan government & people are fed up with foreign troops crossing into their country. Our presence at the moment is not helping.
Besides if the Americans and Europeans hadn't backed, financed and armed the most radical & fanatical groups in Afghanistan to oust the Soviet Army those groups may not have been able to come to power and to destroy almost all of the more moderate groups.
As for Iraq the Americans have no justification for occupying a sovereign nation , Their justication was all based on fabricated evidence and a massive Propaganda campaign aimed at the American people and at the United Nations. If there were justice in this world the Bush Regime personnel would all be indicted for War Crimes and Crimes against humanity. Secondly the United Nations would send peace-keepers who are well armed and permitted to use lethal force into Iraq to get the Americans and other foreign armies out of Iraq. This will not be easy but it could be done if there was the will to do it.
from The Chronicle Herald.ca /Canada
Military supplier slams Muslims
'Rag-headed heathen’ online comments endangers soldiers, MP Brison says
BY JOAN BRYDEN The Canadian Press
Mon. Sep 22 -
OTTAWA — A company that supplies knives, flashlights and other equipment to the Canadian armed forces referred to Muslims as "rag-headed, heathen bastards" on its website as recently as Sunday when the federal government complained.
Gear Up Motors’ website was replete with other jabs at women and Liberals and mocked official bilingualism and concerns about global warming.
But with Canadian troops risking their lives in Afghanistan, the passage about Muslims was the most likely to raise alarm.
"Jihad? I’ll give you a jihad you miserable, rag-headed, heathen bastard!" said a caption posted over a photograph of a rifle-toting John Wayne.
Liberal MP Scott Brison said such prejudiced and "xenophobic" comments are contrary to the values Canadian soldiers are trying to promote abroad and potentially injurious to troops in Afghanistan, where the vast majority of the population is Islamic.
"This type of disgusting vitriol from a Canadian military supplier is certainly not going to help our brave Canadian men and women in uniform in places like Afghanistan and has a real potential to endanger them," he said in an interview.
The federal government was unaware of the website until The Canadian Press drew it to the attention of the Prime Minister’s Office late Saturday. By mid-day Sunday, much of the offending material, including the John Wayne photo and caption, had been removed from the company’s website after the company had been contacted by the Prime Minister’s Office.
Gear Up’s home page still prominently asserted: "We are a proud supplier to the Canadian Armed Forces" for which it supplies "edged weapons, hand-held lighting and NVG filters for a variety of applications." And it still urged browsers to "Support our troops worldwide."
But the website had ceased to display the Candian Armed Forces’ coat of arms.
Repeated attempts to contact company owner Stanley Pioro were unsuccessful.
After reviewing federal contracts, a spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Sunday there’s little the government can do because Gear Up is a private company, has fulfilled its contractual obligations and is not doing any ongoing business with the military.
"We have sent a request to them to remove any logos or copyrighted material from the Canadian Armed Forces from their website," said Kory Teneycke, Harper’s communications director.
"We’re doing what we can to distance ourselves from this company. . . . We’re obviously not pleased that they would characterize Canadian soldiers or our mission in that way."
Teneycke said he understands that the offending material was posted on the company’s website only 10 days ago, long after the contracts with the federal government had expired. Nevertheless, he called the slur against Muslims "completely inappropriate."
"I think the chances that this company will be doing business with the military in the future would be very much in question as a result of this," he predicted.
He doubted that members of the military, which includes people of all faiths, including Muslims, would approve of Gear Up’s messaging.
"Our soldiers are there to help the people of Afghanistan and are doing a heck of a job. They’re not over there risking their lives because they hold the Afghan people or their faith in low esteem."
The company has been in the news recently after Green Leader Elizabeth May complained that Gear Up Motors was given a contract two years ago to supply army-issue knives, replacing longtime supplier, Grohmann Knives, located in Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s Central Nova riding.
May is running against MacKay.
MacKay has said that Gear Up Motors won a competitive bid for the knife contract, offering a comparable product for a lower price. He has defended the bidding process and criticized May for appearing to suggest he should "rig the procurement process in favour of a local contractor."
Gear Up Motors, based in Richmond, Ont. just outside Ottawa, sells all terrain vehicles, dirt bikes and consignment hunting rifles, in addition to military equipment. It is located in former defence minister Gordon O’Connor’s riding and appears to have won its first contract in 2006, when O’Connor was still in the post.
Until Sunday, jokes and sarcastic broadsides were sprinkled throughout the website amid pictures of the vehicles the company sells.
"Gear Up Motors is proud to be a fluently bilingual organization. We speak English and American," the company declared at one point.
A disclaimer that was obviously intended to be humourous included: "Not tested on animals — we use Liberals."
The website also included a "fairie tale" that took a poke at women.
"One day, long, long ago, there was a woman who surprisingly did not whine, bitch or nag. But this was a long time ago . . . And it was just for one day. The end."
And it ridiculed those who are concerned about global warming.
"Stop climate change: Donate to the ’Stop the Earth’s Rotation’ Foundation, administered by Gear Up Motors. You will not receive equal value in carbon credits."
It still includes so-called "words of wisdom."
"If you give a man a fire, he will be warm for that day. If you set a man on fire, he will be warm for the rest of his life."
Stan Pioro the owner of Gear Up Motors on his website www.maxus.ca has quickly responded to the accusations of racism, xenophobia and sexism made against him. But the response he makes shows that he accepts the propaganda that the Bush Regime touts as reality. He claims his comments were about only those fanatics who " flew 747s into The World Trade Center " or place I.E.D. on the roads in Iraq and Afghanistan. But he also goes on to claim he is under attack by the " Liberal Media " ,and contract-losing business competitors, that feed their so-called " Journalist " flunkies with lies and mis-information".
He has used the sort of buzz words and talking points that the Bushites & Neocons use. The use of the term " Raghead " no matter what he thinks is offensive because it is a perjoritive term used usully about anyone wearing a turban so it includes Arabs, Afghans, Iraqis , but also Sikhs and anyone else who wears similar head gear.
The problem is that he is a suppliers of gear to the Canadian military and is not supposed to be setting policy since this is a conflict of interest. If the war ended tomorrow would his business suffer. Are we to become like the Americans that is having policies set by corporations who have a big stake in continuous eternal warfare such as Haliburton etc.
Response to media attacks on me by Joan Bryden et al:
The media has portrayed me as a rascist, and states that I have insulted Muslims. Not true. I have never made any comments about Muslims or the Muslim Faith. It is obvious to anyone that viewed this site, that my comments and jokes were directed at Insurgents, specifically those that have declared Jihad on the West, and the type of people that flew 747's into the World Trade Center - the type of people that to this day deliberately kill innocent men, women and children, of all faiths, indiscriminately, with car bombs and suicide attacks. These are the cowards that plant roadside I.E.D.s to attack our troops. Apparently, it is not Politically Correct to criticize terrorists. My failing is that I am a Hard-Core Patriot, and I believe passionately about this Country, our way of life, and our choices of Religion. I care passionately about our Armed Forces Personnel, and the great work they are doing, and the great sacrifices that they make to defend this Country. I refuse to be railroaded any further by The Liberal Media, and contract-losing business competitors, that feed their so-called "Journalist" flunkies with lies and mis-information.
Anyone that believes that wars can be won by handing out Love Beads, and flashing Peace signs, needs to remove their heads from their rectums.
and so it goes,
GORD.
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