Tag Archive

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.”

Read the rest of this entry »