True Canadians back Harper!!!!!!!

Cdns. back me on Mideast: Harper

Mike De Souza
The Ottawa Citizen
Saturday, August 05, 2006
CORNWALL - Prime Minister Stephen Harper
says he's not concerned about the recent
backlash from various ethnic communities
regarding his government's foreign policy
because he believes his stance is perfectly
in tune with the views of Canadians
regarding the war on terrorism.
After wrapping up a summer retreat with his
Conservative caucus, Mr. Harper dismissed
recent polls and protests that suggest many
Canadians want him to back away from his
support of Israel's conflict with Hezbollah in
Lebanon and his resolve to pursue the
Canadian military mission in Afghanistan.
"I think the position we have, properly
understood, is exactly the position of
Canadians," Mr. Harper told reporters
yesterday. "Canadians want to see peace
and stability in the Middle East. Canadians
are not neutral on terrorism or on terrorist
groups, and Canadians want us to work
with the international community to
develop a strong position that can lead to a
durable and lasting peace."
Following the news conference, Mr. Harper
had a different message for a Quebec
audience in a TV interview -- backtracking
on his earlier assessment of the Israeli
military strikes in Lebanon as a "measured"
response. "Now we have a completely
different situation from three weeks ago,
as I've said many times.
We have a full-blown conflict, almost a war,
and it's hard to say whether a response is
proportional to another. It's a war,"
Mr. Harper told the French-language
TVA network in Quebec.
(Mr. Harper is right, It is war,
Hezballah refused to return the
soldiers, fire misiles within civialian
areas causing their lives to be taken
promising to pay them back later.....

How do you pay back a child's life?)

Outside the Cornwall caucus, dozens of
protesters, waving Canadian, Lebanese and
Palestinian flags, tried to push their way past
police to tell Mr. Harper they disagreed with
his stance on the conflict.
Some of the protesters, from Cornwall,
Montreal and Ottawa, said
Mr. Harper is wrong to label Hezbollah a
terrorist group.

(Mr Harper reconizes terrorist for
what they are- Murders)

"Hezbollah are Lebanese civilians," said
Fatima Mustapha, 20, a Montrealer who
spent the past five years in Lebanon. "It's
the only one who is defending us.
It's the only one who is defending the
children who are dying, the families who
are crushed by the bombs of Israel."

(This statement came from a
Canadian Citizen?- Can you believe
it?) I understand freedom of
religious rights but people with
this political mind...are they truly
what canada needs as a citizen?

While the Prime Minister's Office eventually
allowed two protesters to meet with Foreign
Affairs Minister Peter MacKay and
International Cooperation Minister Josee
Verner, Mr. Harper refused to back down from
his stance supporting Israel's right to defend
itself as he spoke to reporters in English.
Many reporters, including all of the
French-speaking journalists, did not ask
questions because of the ongoing dispute
between the parliamentary press gallery and
the PMO over the protocol at news conferences.
Meanwhile, Mr. Harper added he wasn't
worried about alienating voters in various
ethnic communities, explaining the situation
in Afghanistan and the Middle East
represents a threat to Canada in light of the
recent terrorism-related arrests in Toronto.
"There are a lot of long-term strategic
interests of this country and of the world at
stake here and that's why we're taking the
positions that we're taking," said
Mr. Harper. "I'm not concerned or
preoccupied in any way with reaction within
individual communities. I think that
reaction is very predictable."
The protesters said they appreciated their
45-minute meeting with the ministers.
Rana Abdallah said Ms. Verner told them
she was heartbroken, as a mother of three,
to see the casualties in Lebanon.

(We are all heart broken when
children who don't realize their
families are sacrificing them in
hopes for repayment from
Hezballah dies)

Mr. Harper added that he didn't understand
why the opposition is taking a different
position on foreign policy.
"They are expressing positions without
policy, without suggestions -- ideas that
are completely different from those of the
international community," he said. "The
conditions have to be put in place to make a
ceasefire possible and make it stable.
Obviously that isn't going to be the case as
long as we have a terrorist organization
that's initiating violence and won't cease
its attacks."
The government wouldn't change its position
based on polls, he added.
"I watched the previous government make
decisions on the basis of weekly polls, and
we know what happened to them."
© The Ottawa Citizen 2006