Thursday, September 27, 2012

Tories Invite, Then Boot, Racist Group

CBC has the general story, but more can be gleaned from the cireport website:

Earlier today, the webmasters of cireport.ca were scheduled to appear before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. Due to apparent interference by Liberal and NDP members of the Committee, our scheduled presentation did not happen. 

It didn't happen because NDP research staff took a look at the website and didn't like what they saw:

The Conservatives invited two witnesses to the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration today from  the Canadian Immigration Report, an organisation associating itself with racists and hate groups.

 On the Canadian Immigration Report website, we can find among other things, an interview with well-known Canadian white supremacist Paul Fromm.

In the CBC story,  Conservative MP Chungsen Leung, who apparently invited the group, pled ignorance--something, as a Tory MP, I'm sure he can do with aplomb:

...[he] told reporters he had requested the witnesses on the recommendation from people in his Toronto-area riding of Willowdale, but admitted he didn't do due diligence in checking their backgrounds.

"I was told these witnesses were lawyers, I was not told anything else, and I was not aware of the views or the website they are associated with," he read from a statement.

"The views stated in their website are disgusting, and anti-Canadian, and I'm outraged by them. So as a result, I have asked the clerk that they be pulled [from the committee list]."

However, what is interesting is how the Lussier's (Julien and Madi, who run Immigration Report) blame not  Leung, who invited and then dis-invited them, but the opposition parties:

... it seems that the Liberals and NDP did not believe in their immigration policies enough to defend them before us. Along with all the other Canadians we speak for, we were silenced, censored, discarded.

Bad vetting or worse?  A quick google of Cheung and Julien Lussier doesn't bring up anything besides this story.  Still, five seconds playing around the cireport website by Mr. Leung's staff would have saved their boss a whole day of embarrassment.

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