Just when you think the cold black heart of the Conservative government couldn't get any colder, or blacker, they once again show their infinite capacity for contempt of reason.

Safety Minister Peter Van Loan wants to save us from Mikhail Lennikov, a man who has lived an exemplary life with his family in Canada. He worked for the KGB as a student, and he gave details about it to CSIS when he came here. It's been no secret, which, I guess, doesn't make him a very good secret agent...

But now that he's been here for 12 years, his 17-year old son having grown up here, they want to deport him. They originally wanted to deport the whole family, but Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Van Loan must have accidentally knocked their heads together, because in the ensuing delirium, they actually managed to do one right thing and let his wife and son stay.

Maybe there's no legal statute of limitations on how long you can leave a family's fate hanging, but there's certainly a moral one, and that's what his community supporters, his minister, as well as a growing list of MPs from every other corner of the house are acting on, a nuance that I'm sure the Conservatives have no capacity to understand.

But hey, if their eminences, Kenney and Van Loan have something on this guy, then please, do tell. People on the social right complain about the Nanny state when it comes to Canada's social programs, but for people who are affronted by this perceived adult-child relationship, is there anything more condescending than a government saying it doesn't need to justify it's actions? Millions of intelligent Canadians disagree. Who can blame Mr. Lennikov for seeking sanctuary in his church basement?

I mean, you'd think the Conservatives would be smart enough, if only for public relations reasons, to tell us what they have on this guy. If there's evidence that he was an evil doer, an evil maker, or an evil whatever-intransitive-verb you want to hang on this guy, then look, I volunteer -- I'll drag him out of the church myself.

Instead, these government ministers just cement their image as evil automatons themselves. Had Mr. Lennikov been a desk clerk for the SS, I'm sure Kenney and Van Loan would be giving us their rendition of Springtime for Hitler (Oh, right -  don't say 'rendition').

Hey look, Mr. Ministers, I know that the rejection of reason was the “new black” after 9-11, but at some point, being reasonable men has to come back into fashion. If you can be reasonable and compassionate at the same time, well, all the better. God knows your images sure could use a polish.

 


Comments

Alex Murdoch

06/03/2009 17:48:49

Once again, Harper is saving us from the evils of Canadian citizens. Let's see, that's Omar Khadr , a child soldier tortured into confessing; Abousfian Abdelrazik, a Canadian citizen stuck in Sudan because he's on the UN terror watch list and who has had hurdle after hurdle thrown at him by the Harper gov't; and Maher Arar, illegally detained and deported to face torture in a foreign prison. Hmmm, those are the ones we know about so far Mr. Harper, how many more are there?

 

Jennifer Moreau

06/03/2009 19:02:38

Hey Lalo, I am covering this story for the Burnaby NOW on a constant basis. Actually, I just got home from the church where Mikhail Lennikov is staying and I'll have another story out this Saturday. Keep an eye on my blog for updates: http://tinyurl.com/lfdk87
Cheers,
Jen

 

L Luciuk

12/26/2010 10:48:21

No veteran of the KGB is admissible to Canada. That is a finding based on Canadian law. An independent tribunal (the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada) also did not find this man's claim to being a refugee credible. His subsequent appeal was rejected by a federal court judge, who then ordered that the deportation proceed. The KGB man then bolted to a prepared church basement and there claims to have "sanctuary" (there is no such right in Canadian law). Either we have laws that are upheld or we don't. In this case we have a man who rose through the ranks of the Soviet secret police (which enslaved and murdered millions of innocents in the Soviet Union over the course of the 20th century), enjoyed all the perks and privileges of his status as a loyal servant of the state, suffered no harm when he reportedly resigned, who now wants to become a Canadian. We don't need him. Whatever he did for the KGB ndirectly or directly supported a criminal organization and that makes him inadmissible. The law is clear. There should be no KGB in Canada. Not now, not ever.

 



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