{"id":11866,"date":"2015-09-09T08:58:09","date_gmt":"2015-09-09T12:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=11866"},"modified":"2015-09-09T08:58:09","modified_gmt":"2015-09-09T12:58:09","slug":"refugee-crisis-should-raise-questions-about-canadas-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/refugee-crisis-should-raise-questions-about-canadas-role\/","title":{"rendered":"Refugee crisis should raise questions about Canada\u2019s role"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Re: Candidate disagrees with Navy assessment, September 3)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Candidate Menegakis boasts of increased spending on the military, omitting that every dollar contributed to the Conservative\u2019s consistent deficits.
\nHe also neglects to mention that the major weapons systems upgrades are behind schedule, massively over-budget and the money not yet spent. The expensive platforms are of highly questionable use for defending Canada, as opposed to attacking other places like the F-35 fighter is intended.
\nThese are really only poor execution details though if money is well spent on essential items, but I question if it is.
\nUnder Stephen Harper, the military\u2019s role has changed from defending Canada and peacekeeping to initiating offensive military actions. This has proven universally disastrous for the U.S., with well over a million dead in Iraq and Afghanistan, yet little changed other than Saddam\u2019s generals are now leading ISIL \u2013 an even more brutal regime.
\nWho are we helping with this intervention in Iraq and Syria? Certainly not the innocents; as is claimed by those who support war as the first reply to all problems.
\nIn neighbouring Syria an uprising against the brutal tyrant has half the population trying to flee the resulting civil war. The Canadian government has been the major roadblock to stopping these refugees fleeing to Canada, and instead is now dropping bombs that may be helping the tyrant and credible reports indicate some are falling civilians.
\nInnocents, some who had willing sponsors in the safety of Canada, are still stuck in the local horror, or drowned at sea. If there was some way that more war could be seen to reduce this, as is the official reply of the Harper government to the people, then perhaps that money spent would be morally acceptable.
\nThe history is clear that the result will just be an increased number of refugees.
\nUnless Ottawa changes they will be turned down by Canada, the country that took in 60,000 people from Vietnam when we were a more civilized country. Perhaps a few less bombs, and a few more transports bringing in new citizens should have a role in Canada\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

John Shaw
\nAurora
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Re: Candidate disagrees with Navy assessment, September 3) Candidate Menegakis boasts of increased spending on the military, omitting that every dollar contributed to the Conservative\u2019s consistent deficits. He also neglects to mention that the major weapons systems upgrades are behind schedule, massively over-budget and the money not yet spent. The expensive platforms are of highly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-35o","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-02 03:16:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}