Durban Climate Conference Tells Peter Kent to Stay Home. I Wish He Would Just go Away!

Lesley Hughes was a popular CBC radio host and respected journalist, who had always been an advocate for the less fortunate members of society. In 2008, she was urged to run for the Liberal Party of Canada, in the Winnipeg riding of Kildonan–St Paul, to challenge incumbent Joy Smith.

Smith was a cohort of Stockwell Day's,  a social conservative who handled his Manitoba campaign when he was running for the party leadership.  Since Kildonan–St Paul is a swing riding, the Conservatives feared that Lesley Hughes could unseat Ms. Smith.

Waiting until it was too late to register another candidate, Peter Kent and the B'Nai Brith, publicly accused Hughes of being anti-Semitic, because of an article she had written in 2002.

It was called Get the Truth, and was in response to the "friendly fire" deaths of 4 Canadian soldiers.  Hughes, like most Canadians, questioned our involvement in the Afghan war.

Kent pointed to one paragraph, as being an attack on Jews.

German Intelligence (BND) claims to have warned the U.S. last June, the Israeli Mossad and Russian Intelligence in August. Israeli businesses, which had offices in the Towers, vacated the premises a week before the attacks, breaking their lease to do it. About 3000 Americans working there were not so lucky.

She does not suggest that the Jewish people were behind the attack, only that German intelligence had warned of the attack, weeks before, and since it looked like nothing was being done in the U.S., Israel was not about to let their people be victimized, just in case the reports were true.  And she provides her source.

Yet, with the help of the media, she was painted as being anti-Semitic and one who believes in a "Jewish conspiracy".  The incident not only cost her the election, since Dion was forced to remove her name, but severely damaged her career.  (B'Nai Brith Canada tells Liberals to dump star candidate)

This was not the first time that they tried to discredit Progressive candidates.

As a former journalist, I was surprised that Kent would sink to this level, but then he was with Canwest Global, a step up from Fox News, though it depends on what you're stepping in.

Peter Kent would also make headlines for his involvement in trying to influence student elections at York University.

"The Conservative party has no authority at all for getting involved in student politics and neither does the York administration. We're an incorporated, independent body," charged Krisna Saravanamuttu, who was elected president of the York Federation of Students in the controversial vote. "Prime Minister Stephen Harper's foot soldiers are deliberately interfering with student elections to help candidates more friendly to their policies." (1)

Through a Freedom of Information request, the student federation obtained 50 pages of email exchanges in which assistants for the two politicians, who represent student-heavy ridings north of the campus, repeatedly questioned university executives about the results of a student council vote this spring.

The students were right that the Conservatives had no authority over their elections.

I can't look at Peter Kent without being angry, and the thought of him representing us at an international climate conference, makes my blood boil.

He was shown on the National, blaming the Liberals for signing onto Kyoto in the first place.  Their biggest blunder says Kent.  And to bring some "balance" into the story, the National interviewed environmental expert Jack Mintz.  Isn't he an economist?  But then they can't really interview an actual scientist, because Christian Paradis (2), also not a scientist, has them all bound and gagged. Suncor got to weigh in though, and guess what side they're on?

Mintz is using China as a scapegoat, but even they have a better policy than we do.

And where are the environmentalists in this story? Our climate policies are now being decided by an ex-journalist (Kent), a corporate lawyer (Paradis) and Suncor.

This reminds me of a joke I shared before, when another non-scientist (Bernhard Rust) was heading up the science ministry in 1930s Germany.  It was published in a 1933 Time Magazine story, entitled 'Science: Jews Without Jobs':

Two Germans were eyeing a burly lout in the Nazi uniform who was striding through a university hall. First man: "What is the policeman doing here?" Second man: "Sh, sh. That is the man selected to succeed Einstein."

I chuckle at the media suggesting that at Copenhagen we agreed to do what the U.S. does, despite the fact that Italy and Canada were the only G8 nations not invited to attend Obama's private meeting. The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was back home after being attacked by a protester earlier in the week, and Harper should have just stayed home. (3)

We were also warned by Americans that we should fend for ourselves:

.... speaking before a House of Commons committee on the environment, three experts on the U.S. effort to pass a climate change bill suggested Canada might be better off working on its own legislation then working to link it to whatever legislation the U.S. passes.

Gotta' love the media though. If Harper says it, it must be true.

The Durban climate conference is now telling Peter Kent to stay home.  I agree that he shouldn't attend the conference, but why do we have to be stuck with him?

Sources:

1. Stop meddling, students tell Tories, By Louise Brown, Toronto Star, July 6, 2009

2. Ottawa’s media rules muzzling federal scientists, say observers, By Margaret Munro, Postmedia News, September 12, 2010

3. Obama makes last-ditch effort to save climate deal, By Allan Woods, Toronto Star, December 18, 2009