11.08.2017 08:08 AM

Did Canada just praise Syria?

Well, yes, we did. 


And why is that totally unacceptable and appalling?

Here’s why:

According to the Syrian Center for Policy Research, an independent Syrian research organization, the death toll from the conflict as of February 2016 was 470,000. The spread and intensification of fighting has led to a dire humanitarian crisis, with 6.1 million internally displaced people and 4.8 million seeking refuge abroad, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. By mid-2016, an estimated 1 million people were living in besieged areas and denied life-saving assistance and humanitarian aid.

More than 117,000 have been detained or disappeared since 2011, the vast majority by government forces, including 4,557 between January and June 2016, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights. Torture and ill-treatment are rampant in detention facilities; thousands have died in detention.
In its fourth report, released this year, the Joint Investigative Mechanism between the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the UN concluded that Syrian government forces used chemicals in an attack in Idlib in March 2015. The inquiry also identified the military units responsible for flights connected to the attacks but could not name the commanders of the units due to the Syrian government’s failure to respond to crucial queries. In an earlier report, the joint inquiry had reached the same conclusion for two other attacks, in 2014 and 2015. The inquiry also previously found that ISIS had used sulfur mustard gas in an attack on areas held by armed opposition groups in August 2015.

Syria’s regime is the literal embodiment of evil. Catherine McKenna needs to withdraw her statement and apologize for it. 

16 Comments

  1. Cath says:

    Yep, totally unacceptable!
    This government’s communications strategies are sure hitting the skids these days.
    I’m sure oppo. teams are smiling again today.

  2. Pedant says:

    She’s really not that bright, it needs to be said. What is it with this administration and its unusually large proportion of airheads? I cannot recall any government, Liberal or Tory, federal or provincial, with such a lightweight front bench. She probably wasn’t even aware that the Syrian civil war is a “thing” and that the current rulers of the country are a bit nasty.

    Btw that 470,000 death toll (and even that dating from Feb 2016, so surely much higher now) is more astonishing that even I, a fairly well-informed person, realized.

    • Montréalaise says:

      This is what happens when you choose your cabinet based on gender instead of competence.

      • Ronald O'Dowd says:

        Montréalaise,

        But wasn’t the “plan” all along to choose a cabinet based on gender AND competence?? ?

        Justin n’est pas un bon juge…

    • Miles Lunn says:

      This is what happens when you go from 36 seats to 184 seats. That means your cabinet will be mostly made up of rookies so more mistakes. Past governments coming to power have usually had at least half their caucus from with seats already. When Chretien came to power in 1993, his caucus doubled in size not a five fold increase and you also had many veterans from previous administrations which Trudeau liked.

  3. WestGuy says:

    Really though, was it a congrats to Syria or was it a poke at the US? I’m thinking the latter.

  4. P. Brenn says:

    She pulled tweet but blamed her twitter department..its called accountability

  5. lou says:

    Can’t wait for the Toronto Star to unleash it’s columnists to defend her on this one. Mallick will claim a white male conspiracy again (is there a more miserable human being) and Cohn will dig up some garbage to stress that “science shows that Syria is combating global warming by eliminating the single greatest cause, humans.” At what point does this government embrace reason instead of dogma. Hard to believe that the US president can sound reasonable, but when compared to the “2015” cabinet, it’s not a reach.
    Warren, how painful is it to watch your party disintegrate into a collection of ignorant morons?

    • doconnor says:

      In the last week or two on Twitter, the US President has repeatedly praised the President of China and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia for gaining absolute power over their counties.

  6. James Smith says:

    Yup Syria’s government is evil.
    The tweet, like 98.785% of all tweets, was dopey.
    One may go through the list of all the countries that have signed the Paris Accord who are almost as bad as Syria.
    So all the nations of the world (with the soon to be exception of the USofA) have affirmed the Paris Accord. Is that a bad thing?

  7. Matthew says:

    That was one of the most hyperbolic things I have read over the years on this blog. What does the Paris agreement have to do with chemical weapons? Syria is run by maggots, OK that’s bad. Syria’s maggots signed onto the Paris accord, ok that’s good. Did I miss something? Was support for chemical weapons use somehow embedded in the Paris accord?

    • Pedant says:

      If Apartheid South Africa signed on to a 1980s version of the Paris Accords (which is mostly symbolic nonsense, a chance for the Liberatti of the world to attend galas), would the Canadian government have been wise to cheer it on?

    • Kevin says:

      Well, of course it is, it’s all right there in the fine print. You just have to do your homework. And besides, Mallick. You can’t forget Mallick. Try to keep up.

  8. Charlie says:

    Jesus christ, who the fuck does the comms folks hiring in Ottawa?

Leave a Reply to WestGuy Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.