Politics 11 - Dual Citizenship

It’s the weekend and, again, I am left with reading the newspapers to justify my wide knowledge of world affairs.  Stretched wide and, thus, thin on substance.  But there are some subjects that inspire forceful discussion, and one of them is dual citizenship.  Therefore, I searched this Blog and, to my surprise, realized that I had not written on the subject before, apparently.

I have been traveling quite a lot recently and, each time, I think back many decades to my first international journey as a dual citizen (Montreal Mirabel to London Heathrow).  I departed Montreal Immigration with my new Canadian passport and, upon arrival in London, I was confronted by a short Green line for U.K. citizens, and a Red line stretching to the distant horizon for the rest of us.  Quickly, I took out my U.K. passport and, with a smug smile, joined the Green line.  Of course, when the officer studied my passport he asked, without looking up, “Where are you from, sir?”  Not noticing any sign of humanity in his eyes, I carefully answered, “Canada.”  “There’s no Canadian stamp,” he said, looking at me as if I was deliberately concealing something.  “No,” I replied triumphantly, “I decided to use the Green line.”  “That’s illegal,” he said, as he officiously stamped my quickly produced Canadian passport.  “Don’t do it again.”  (In other words, use only one passport for each round trip).

That’s when I discovered that dual citizenship does not provide equality, and I remembered this as I read about someone being wrongly imprisoned in Egypt today.  Human rights activists are pouring out of the woodwork to decry this case, but I must tell them that not all rights are equal.  In China, innocent, peaceful people are prosecuted for their religious beliefs (for example) and end up being forced to donate their organs for transplant.  That is an obvious and horrible example against human rights.  But if an Egyptian-Canadian travels to a country rife with danger, and uses his Egyptian passport, then, he becomes an Egyptian in that country and is, obviously, looking for trouble ... and Canadian Foreign Affairs can do little.  Equally, if a Syrian-Canadian travels to Syria as a self-declared freedom fighter (terrorist) the same danger applies ... and if he returns to Canada, he should be arrested, and jailed, for contravening the rules of immigration.

I do not want my country to become a hideout for religious extremists.  Do you?

Politics 6 - Israel/Canada

When I initially began this Blog site, it was not my intention to write about any one subject, e.g., Politics, more than once each month.  But reading the Canadian media this morning has annoyed me so much that my patience has disappeared.

I am referring to the behaviour of Mr. Baird, Canada’s Foreign Minister, at a committee meeting of the U.N.’s General Assembly yesterday, where he voted, No, together with only six other countries;  Israel, the United States and four small South Pacific island nations – Palau, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Nauru, for resolutions against Israel.

I doubt if anyone reading this could point to these islands on a map and, thus, we can be excused for any suspicious thoughts we may have for their behaviour.

It is especially annoying as we know that Canada’s, so-called, majority government only received one-third of the popular vote at the last election, and it seems to me, as I read the newspapers today, that many who did vote for this government are also expressing great disappointment today.

It amazed me that Mr. Baird could state, “This series of resolutions against Israel is generally one-sided, and unbalanced ...”  Does he not realize that the resolutions are “one-sided and unbalanced” because the rest of the world does not accept Israel’s terrorism.  Additionally, if both Russia and China would not abstain or veto against these resolutions, we should see a very different Middle East.

Mr. Bell, a former Canadian ambassador to Israel, Egypt and Jordan, said that it will affect the role Canada can play in the Middle East.  In the past, Israel asked Canada to intervene with Arab governments to moderate criticism. “I don’t think that would be possible today,” he said.  I agree.