This story will not make very many people happy.  If you happen to believe in left-wing media bias and that Israel is an undeserving oppressed nation (and other farcical notions), please stop reading now.  Things will only get worse for you the farther you read into the article.

The story of the Canadian NGO Rights and Democracy has recently received media attention for the firing of three new appointees to the board of directors.  As the CBC says:

“Three senior managers at the federal government’s human rights agency who were suspended for publicly declaring their lack of confidence in three Conservative appointees to their organization’s board of directors earlier this year have been fired.”

To understand the how and why this is so particularly egregious requires a fair amount of back story.

“Rights & Democracy, created under Brian Mulroney’s Conservative government to encourage democracy and monitor human rights around the world, has been in turmoil since the Harper government appointed new board members [the ones mentioned in the first quote] last year.

The new members challenged grants being made to three human rights organizations known to be critical of Israel’s human rights record.”

One of things that you do NOT do is criticize Israel (despite the country’s atrocious human rights record), especially if you are in a government funded organization.  It appears that these firings stem from this defacto political axiom.   Furthermore, if you do have the temerity to question Israeli policy you may be hounded into an early grave:

“Federal opposition politicians and the family of former president Rémy Beauregard, who died in January, are calling for an independent inquiry into the organization. […]   Beauregard bore the brunt of the new board members’ outrage over the grants. He died of a heart attack after a stormy board meeting.”

Furthermore, in an interview on As it Happens on CBC radio 1 Payam Akhaven, a McGill University Professor of International Law, formally in the employ of Rights & Democracy says:

[that the staff at Rights & Democracy were aware] “There was a pattern of psychological harassment against Remy Beauregard”.

To summarize:   1.  Three vocal members holding a dissident view were fired from the NGO Rights & Democracy.

The organization’s director of communications, Charles Vallerand, director of resources and administration Marie-France Cloutier, and director of policy, planning and programs Razmik Panossian were suspended without pay in January after they submitted a letter to the media expressing their concerns.

2.  Three Harper approved ideologues were appointed to replace them and promptly began a campaign of harassment and intimidation against the late Remy Beauregard  and other staff at Rights and Democracy.

Before we get any further down the rabbit hole.  Let us see what the conservative appointee’s problem actually is with the direction Rights and Democracy is taking.  Apparently, it is a question of funding.

“The new members challenged grants being made to three human rights organizations known to be critical of Israel’s human rights record, especially during the Israeli offensive in the Palestinian coastal territory.”

Is this principled opposition?  Do I even need to ask the question?  Of course it is not, it is Harper inserting his faithful minions into a agency to ‘get it in line’ with the pro-Israeli foreign policy he wishes to foster.  Are these groups linked to funding terrorism?  Aurel Braun seems to think so:

“Aurel Braun, a university professor and the new chairman of the Rights and Democracy board, said he wants to bring accountability to the agency.

He also said he thinks two of the organizations that got grants — Al Haq and Al Mezan — have links to terrorism. The third group, B’Tselem, which is Israeli, is biased and undeserving of funding, Braun said.”

Wow, these organizations must really be shady!   Who are these mischievous, malicious, malcontents?

Al-Haq is evil doer number one – their mission statement:

“Al-Haq is an independent Palestinian non-governmental human rights organisation based in Ramallah, West Bank. Established in 1979 to protect and promote human rights and the rule of law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), the organisation has special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council”

Ah yes, promoting rule of law and protecting human rights, the bastards.

Number two, or maybe the King of Spades in your right wing conspiracy deck, is Al Mezan and their dark machinations:

“Al Mezan Center for Human Rights is a Palestinian non-governmental non-partisan organization based in the refugee camp of Jabalia in the Gaza Strip. Al Mezan’s mandate is “to promote, protect and prevent violations of human rights in general and economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights in particular, to provide effective aid to those victims of such violations, and to enhance the quality of life of the community in marginalized sectors of the Gaza Strip.”

Can you smell that?  It is with the most cold hearted veracity I can muster, the stench of the Axis of Evil.  If this is group is evil, then the third…  well the third must be cut from the cruelest, darkest cloth.  They being the nortorious B’TSelem; are you ready to look into the abyss?  Here is what they stand for:

“B’TSELEM – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories was established in 1989 by a group of prominent academics, attorneys, journalists, and Knesset members. It endeavors to document and educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations in the Occupied Territories, combat the phenomenon of denial prevalent among the Israeli public, and help create a human rights culture in Israel.”

Scuttle away from the lights of justice ye execrable cockroaches of iniquitous malignancy!  Steven Harper’s acolytes have once again brought justice and righteousness to us all.

So supporting groups that actually are for human rights and justice is a “no-no” according the the Harper Book of foreign policy.  Better to accuse them of having terrorist ties or ‘unacceptable’ bias and just be done with the whole lot.

This is yet another example of the conservative government being so awesome they cannot hear the legitimate concerns of the opposition, first when over the firings of the dissidents and second when their appointees began to raise hell with up till now has been a NGO with a fairly good track record.

The usual Harper malfeasance aside, could it get any worse?   Oh you bet it does…