Bad Ideas Never Die, and They Apparently Don't Just Fade Away

Jason Kenney is a ward-heeling hack and represents everything about ethnic politicking that conservatives used to hate, at least until they decided to try it themselves.

The dishonesty of the Tories ethnic pandering is also mind-blowing. Kenney has spent the last several years in ethnic, and especially recent immigrant, communities playing up their similarities with the Conservative Party on cultural issues, such as abortion and gay marriage. Kenney's primary focus has been Sikhs, but he's also spent a lot of time in the Italian and Portuguese areas in two or three Toronto ridings.

Here's where the dishonesty comes in. The Conservatives have no intention of delving back into the cauldron of stupidity that is abortion and gay marriage, and Stephen Harper said so as recently as yesterday. The rest of country wouldn't stand for it and neither would the courts, which would find almost anything that the Tories do unconstitutional.

After all, no fewer than ten courts of competent jurisdiction - including the Supreme Court of Canada - have already ruled on gay marriage. That would leave Harper no other alternative but to invoke the notwithstanding clause of the Charter, which would drive the country up the wall. If they invoked notwithstanding on an abortion law, they would face a political apocalypse so severe that they would never recover. I'm not even sure that social conservatives would support it, given that as much as they despise abortion, they properly loath the notwithstanding clause.

So Jason Kenney's "cultural outreach" is, at best, disingenuous. But that's not to say that it's ineffective. The ridings that he's targeted have returned the Liberals by lower and lower margins in every election since the Harper Government took power. There are six heavily Sikh ridings in play in Ontario and British Columbia and the two Italian-Portuguese ridings in 416. That's a total of eight, and the Tories need twelve for their majority. If that majority comes to pass, it will largely be the work of Kenney, and that will make him the prohibitive favorite for the Conservative leadership when Harper finally decides to go away.

I wrote fairly extensively about the David Chen case last fall, and it's something that I'd rather not revisit because it's weapons-grade stupid. But now it's politically weapons-grade stupid, which makes it something worth taking another look at.

For my newer readers, Mr. Chen - who I feel a great deal of sympathy for - is a Toronto shopkeeper that arrested a shoplifter over an hour after a theft had taken place. The only problem with that is that the citizens arrest powers outlined in the Criminal Code of Canada don't work that way. As I explained in my earlier writings on the subject, I dealt with that area of the law some time ago and I know what it allows for and what it doesn't.

Mr. Chen was ultimately acquitted by a judge, despite that verdict's not being supported by either the law or the facts of the case. There was also a massive public outcry here in Toronto on his behalf. I personally didn't enjoy supporting his prosecution, but I believe strongly that the law means exactly what it says. And if that specific part of the law isn't observed, it can be physically dangerous for any number of people. For a lot of reasons, you really don't to tell people that they can do what David Chen. People can and do get seriously hurt when they follow the law to the letter.

Given the public outcry over the Chen case, however, it was only a matter of time before the political hacks got involved, which they did almost immediately. There were two private members bills that sought to change the relevant sections of the Criminal Code and the Conservatives ultimately introduced their own "Lucky Moose Bill," named after David Chen's store.

Guess who the point man on the Lucky Moose Bill is?

Jason Kenney says Chinese Canadians are being ignored by the Liberals who refuse to support a so-called Lucky Moose law.

A fiery Kenney, who serves as immigration minister, said passage of Bill C-60 will be a top priority for the Conservatives if they are returned to power.

“We will ensure this bill is fast-tracked,” Kenney said on Tuesday in Mississauga. “This is a priority for us.”

Kenney said the proposal will give store keepers more flexibility to perform citizen arrests since it can take time for police to show up.

That's a pretty impressive misreading of what C-60 proposes to do. The bill is designed to change the standards and requirements of making an arrest in the first place. The Lucky Moose Bill effectively gives untrained citizens the power to arrest based on police standards, which they do not enjoy now. If you're waiting for the cops, chances are that you've already made an arrest and have a suspect in custody. From what I've heard about the bill, it does nothing to change post-arrest situations or conditions. And it certainly doesn't allow you to assault suspects in custody, which was the primary charge against Mr. Chen.

But why is an Calgary MP running around the Greater Toronto Area misrepresenting the facts of a local criminal case that was dismissed six months ago? Sure, you can argue that it's a matter of federal legislation now, but I'd rebut that by saying that maybe we should be hearing about it from the minister of justice, which we haven't.

Kenney is the minister of immigration. And the ridings that he's visiting in the GTA with this message are heavily (or even plurality) Chinese. Go figure. In fairness, New Democrat Olivia Chow and Liberal Joe Volpe, who introduced the private members bills, also represent heavily ethnic ridings.

Jason Kenney is a ward-heeling huckster with an eye for identity politics, but he sure is an effective one. And in this Retard Cage Match of the Doomed, that's all that really matters.