Editorial: Shameful

We'll be really kind and not name names but someone minimized hugely last week, at the start of the week, and by the end of the week, the minimization became more obvious.

We'll note that the speaker took great strides to defend the Canadian police and noted that facts weren't known. Even offered a vague, 'We don't know who's lying.' That seemed addressed at
Winnie Ng who, for the record, is not a professional liar. The comments were shameful and embarrassing, they were uninformed and it was all that sadder considering the source.

Well Winnie Ng is not a liar. We never thought otherwise. But even the one casting aspertions must have been red faced when The Toronto Globe and Mail reported that Ng was visited by three men. Who were the three men posing as Canadian police and attempting to locate US war resister Joshua Key?

Toronto police spokesman Mark Pugash confirmed this week the affiliations of the three men who visited Ms. Ng. Initially, Toronto police said none of their officers were involved, but after a further search they found that an officer did in fact accompany two military men.
But Mr. Pugash stressed that the police officer was not acting in any investigative capacity, but was simply assisting the men. There was absolutely no effort on the part of the police officer to mislead Ms. Ng into thinking all three men were with Toronto police, he added.

Now who's the liar? Ng who has been consistent with her statements from day one or the police who denied involvement and now wants to assert that Ng must have heard wrong because "no effort on the part of the police officer to mislead" was made?

The police that lied once now lied twice. Ng has been consistent. It's the police who continue to change their story. And it's the domestic media in the United States who continue to ignore this story and the similar story of Kyle Snyder, pulled out of his home in his boxers, handcuffed and tossed into a jail because Canadian police elected to take orders from the US military.

In Canada this is becoming a bigger issue and the latest twist by the police of "Oops, one of us were involved but we did not mislead" will only add to that.

It's not a deportable offense in Canada to self-check out of the US military.

With Key the claim by the US military is that they wish to discuss with him the contents of his book The Deserter's Tale. Though that may prove to be true, the reality is that the US military lied to Kyle Snyder when he returned. The reality is that Jeffry House, Key's attorney, has contacted the US military supposedly interested in just speaking to Key and the US military has refused to return his calls.

The reality is that the issue in Canada is fastly becoming one of whether it is in fact a nation-state or merely an annex of the US. The latest round of explanations, the latest "Oops! We were there, we did cooperate!" won't diminish those concerns.

We think it's a real shame that when someone had a platform to address the issues, and a host welcome to them, he instead elected to cave, to appear 'reasonable,' to cast asperstions on Ng and to act like a water carrier instead of a leader.

We would be more shocked were it not for the fact that the host of the program that invited the guest on was obviously shocked by the weak ass statements being made, by the coverage being offered. At one point, the host attempted to introduce the topic of the United States spying in Canada on peace activists. The guest insisted that wasn't the case when it was the case and had been reported by the Washington Post.

We have no idea why someone was so cowardly and craven or why they came off so hostile. But a leader leads and, if that's leadership, someone needs to step down.

Our sympathies to Ng who was inferred to be a liar. Ng is one of the many people who have put their principles into practice. She and her family opened their home to war resisters seeking refuge in Canada. Her thanks for that should not include a weak ass man attempting to side with the police and suggest that Ng lied about the visit of three men stating they were the police officers.

Again, at the end of the week, the police confirmed that three men did visit Ng's home. They confirmed that one was indeed a police officer. They now want to state that they were wrong before but the truth now, cross their hearts, is that no one misled Ng into thinking all three were police officers.

The only one who has remained consistent has been Ng. We have no reason to doubt her. We think it's really sad that a friend to the movement, for whatever reasons, took to the airwaves last week to imply she was a liar and that no one visited her home.

We think there's no excuse for him not to know the details of Kyle Snyder's arrest. We strongly suggest that he rethink his most recent appearance and figure out whether he is attempting to help war resisters or if he's merely trying to cozy up to the powerful. He was provided with a welcoming forum where the host was voicing much stronger criticism than he was. That's the sort of thing that prolongs the illegal war and you can pair it up with those Party Hacks in the US who tell Americans to be "reasonable" and cheer Congress for every symoblic step.