If Stephen Harper is serious about criminalising 'barbaric cultural practices'...

[arikara]

...then he should arrest himself for even suggesting it

Is Stephen Harper off his rocker? Forget his trip to Jerusalem last year when the Canadian prime minister said that criticism of Israel was a “mask” for anti-Semitism.

Ignore his utter failure to bring home to Canada al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy, whose retrial was staged by the Egyptian government to give him the chance to leave for his country of adoption. Cast aside Harper’s Blair-like contention that the Islamist murders of Canadian soldiers had nothing – absolutely zilch – to do with his decision to send Canada’s F-18 jets against Isis.

Now Harper, the man with the choir-boy good looks whose pro-Israeli policies might win him a seat in the Knesset, is about to push a truly eccentric piece of legislation through parliament in Ottawa. It’s called – and I urge readers to repeat the words lest they think it’s already April Fool’s Day – the “Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act”. Yup, when I first read the phrase “Barbaric Cultural Practices Act”, I felt sure it was a joke, a line from the “Big Bang Theory” or a Channel 4 mockudrama about Nigel Farage’s first premiership.

...

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/if-stephen-harper-is-serious-about-criminalising-barbaric-cultural-practices-then-he-should-arrest-himself-for-even-suggesting-it-10126055.html

LOL Robert Fisk doesn't love Stevie either.

[guillaumeb]

1. barbaric cultural practices as practiced by the big neighbor?

or smaller, less western countries that are not huge trading partners and a possible pathway for Enbridge?

[Bluenorthwest]

4. He's not talking about States but individuals living in Canada, the law makes a big stink about

making things specifically illegal that are already illegal, such as 'honor killings' which of course are illegal as any other sort of murder. The law is deployed by conservatives to dog whistle in this case against Muslims. It's like pushing a law that makes it illegal for Baptists to steal. Since it is already illegal for everyone to steal, such a law would exist as a way of implying that Baptists are thieves, society particularly burdened by their thieving ways.
It used to be very popular, for example, to promote laws making same sex marriage illegal when it was already illegal. It's a way to talk about minorities you don't like much.

[Spazito]

2. Harper is doing a Bibi/Bush, imo

With the election looming and his numbers not looking good, the economy in trouble due to him putting all his economic 'eggs' in the oil basket, all he has left is fomenting irrational fear. 'Vote for me or the terrorists win'.

I'm hoping Canadians are smarter this election than the last.

[arikara]

3. Me too

but stevie picked up a few dirty tricks from the republican's electoral playbook, last time it was enough to win a majority with only 39% of the vote. So if enough buy into the fear mongering we're screwed again.

Crappy system we have here.

[Spazito]

5. The system is flawed for sure...

Proportional representation or preferential ballots would help address some of the flaws especially the 'first past the post' system we currently have. We definitely need election reform.

[MisterP]

6. money and ethnic votes!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Charter_of_Values