Jason Kenney's dilemma: Whatever to do about Conrad?

[JohnyCanuck]

Thanks to Chicago Judge Amy St. Eve, Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has until Aug. 16 to wriggle off the horns of the dilemma he faces over whatever to do about Conrad Black.

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It turns out that Lord Black pines to return to his native land - notwithstanding the fact the former newspaper owner and Pontifex Maximus of the cult of the right renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2001 in order to be "elevated" to the British House of Lords. Perhaps with his present pecuniary embarrassments, our single-payer public health care system has acquired an unexpected allure.

Regardless, Judge St. Eve's restrictions on his Lordship's travel itinerary give Mr. Kenney, the self-righteous keeper of Canada's gates, 24 additional days to figure out how to let Lord Black into Canada without appearing to be a lickspittle toady to a man Canadians generally view with discomfort and distrust. One imagines the pressure on Mr. Kenney is almost unbearable.

Talk about a dilemma! Having cast himself in the persona of an immigration tough guy, a vigorous defender of the realm - ready at the drop of a dime, as it were, to bar the national door to foreign riff-raff - he can hardly be seen to be encouraging the admission to Canada a foreign citizen fresh out of jail, with a criminal history and a felonious conviction still in place.

And yet, the foreign riff-raff in this case is not some law-abiding British Parliamentarian who wishes merely to address a Canadian audience on some topic verboten by the Harperite faction of the Reform Party that controls Parliament.

Instead it is a revered figure in the circles inhabited by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the shot caller behind Mr. Kenney, our nation's Nixonian little gatekeeper.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/djclimenhaga/2010/07/jason-kenney%E2%80%99s-dilemma-whatever-do-about-conrad