POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL
This is nothing less than misappropriation of public funds
by John Baird.
And it would be so no matter which religious group asked
this inappropriate favor.
But it is also unpleasant to see a photo of Baird playing
the same smarmy game as Newt Gingrich and Company in the United States, going
after campaign funds by wearing a yarmulke and carrying out other acts having
nothing to do with government or proper politics or indeed his own faith.
I think it also proper to note that Hasidic Judaism, the
association of the group to which he granted these funds, is in many respects
as backward towards women as fundamentalist Islam.
Also, in view of the rather widely known fact that Baird is
a closeted gay, does it not matter that Hasidic Judaism regards being gay as
sin subject to some pretty unpleasant penalties?
Harper's crowd in every respect follows the Republican Right
Wing, many of whose political campaigns are paid for massively by special
interests responding to this kind of grotesque fawning and favoritism.
An American casino billionaire, Sheldon Adelson, almost
entirely financed Newt Gingrich's recent primary campaign, having given him, at
last count, 16.5 million dollars.
Adelson was quoted as saying he would give another
comparable amount to the Republican campaign in the fall.
Just one of many groveling stunts Newt Gingrich did in
return for such largess was to make public statements that there was no such
thing as a Palestinian. It doesn't get any more pathetic than that.
