Boris Wrzesnewskyj Chased from Critic Portfolio

Liberal MP Boris Wrzesnewskyj, until recently the party's foreign affairs critic, has been chased from his portfolio by Scott Brison and Carolyn Bennet, as well as the other eight candidates for the Liberal leadership, after stating that he thought the Hezbollah should not be on the list of terrorist organizations that Canada maintains. This is a shame because he was absolutely correct.

Some parts of Hezbollah use terrorism to achieve their end, and that is not acceptable. But many parts of Hezbollah are devoted to social and humanitarian ends, to helping the victims of war crimes perpetrated by the Israeli army. Canada's list of terrorist organizations lacks the complexity to recognize this distinction. So really, if the standard that was applied to Hezbollah was applied to every organization and actor in the world, we would have a very different list. To start with, Canada would have to list its own government as a terrorist organization. Our government sends our soldiers to Afghanistan to occupy it against the will of its population, many of whom now clearly resent the presence of the Canadian Armed Forces. If we applied the "Hezbollah Standard" equally, we would have to place the governments of the U.S.A., the U.K. and Israel on the list, along with many other governments.

This list is clearly a double standard. It is simply creating a list of "bad" groups that is really unnecessary. While there are some organizations that do not seem to have any object outside of terrorism, for example the Irish Republican Army or Al Qaeda, there are many organizations which are not as clear cut. I congratulate Mr. Wrzesnewskyj on having the courage to speak the truth (courage and principles being a rare sight among Liberals these days), though he began to back off the comments after being chastised. The candidates for the Liberal leadership, particularly Brison and Bennet ought to be ashamed of themselves for removing an MP from his position for speaking the truth. It is not as though he something anti-semitic, or called for the killing of Israelis. He simply spoke the truth. Just goes to show, principles and the Liberal Party of Canada don't mix.

Cheers

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