Liars, Liars, Pants on Fire.

Radio-Canada is reporting that Harper government officials determined that Suaad Hagi Mohamud was an impostor and threw her to the Kenyan authorities as early as May 28. This is contrary to the story they previously stated to the media.

The 280 pages of documents the journalist obtained shows in e-mails that consular staff in Nairobi wondered if the burden of proving that she was the individual to whom the government had issued the passport was hers. Then a decision was made to give the passport to the Kenyans, tell them she was an impostor, and let them deal with her.

In fact, one of the consular staff speculated that Mohamud would have to challenge the Kenyan government and if she tried to sue Canada for "négligence, préjudices, etc. Mais la cour kenyane n'a aucune autorité sur nos frontière". In other words, the consular staff and other Harper government officials were counting on Kenya to charge her with identify theft and to keep her in prison.

Previous posts and background regarding how Suaad Hagi Mohamud was treated by officials of her country - Canada.

Rightwingnut haters howl and shrieeek.

Suaad Hagi Mohamud and her lawyers have given legal notice that they are going to Federal Court to sue the Canadian government as well as to demand a public inquiry and to secure a formal apology. From here:

An inquiry must be called to investigate whether Mohamud's race and culture played a role in how she was treated, said one of Mohamud's lawyers, Julian Falconer.

Falconer represented Maher Arar in his lawsuit against Ottawa. "If a Caucasian person had been in Suaad's position in Kenya, would she have received the callous and reckless treatment she did?" he said.

"We don't know the answer. We need someone to look at it and answer that question, because frankly, I find it hard to believe that a white, Anglo-Saxon person in her position would have been treated the same way."

Read the irrational loathing spewed in the 300+ comments at the CBC website following the news item from supporters of Stevie's Harpocrites if you have the stomach for it.

As we observed here and here, there's a certain selective political opportunism at play when anti-feminists shrieeeek "Where are the feminists?"

Though it's possible a few fundamentalist christian, rightwing religious conservatives just might support the legal rights of brown-skinned women if they're dead, pregnant, or a fetus. Even then, not so much.

Stevie's Harpocrites: "Noblesse Oblige" Make-Over.

LuLu writes about the ever-so aloof and pristine Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon, Canadian Cynic: Busy, busy, busy.

Cannon has been either intentionally keeping a low profile or been missing in action while Harper fielded questions on Mohamud's ordeal.

An interview request sent yesterday to the minister's office was turned down. Calls to two of his three constituency offices yielded no clues as to his whereabouts.

Memo to Stevie the First and his merry band of Harpocrites: the notion of "Noblesse Oblige" doesn't mean what you think it does.

'God help you if you're not white. . . and childless'

The mainstream media -- OK, mainly The Toronto Star -- have woken up big time to the issues surrounding Suaad Hagi Mohamud. Here's Christopher Hume who asks: 'Is citizenship now defined by the colour of your skin?'

Indeed it is, he concludes.

And in Canada today, God help you if you're not white, because the federal government sure won't. Indeed, that government creates these problems in the first place.

Then he speculates:

Had Mohamud been a white mother from Leaside, you can rest assured that Harper himself would have led the charge to have her repatriated.

Meanwhile Canadian Cynic has another question -- one that hadn't occurred to me (emphasis mine).

BY THE WAY, has anyone considered what would have happened if Mohamud hadn't had a son for DNA comparison purposes? What if she'd been single and childless? What then? Because if the assclowns in the Harper government take the position that it was the DNA results that clinched it for them, then they have to address what would have happened if that test couldn't have been done.

Chilling, innit?

So, where are all the rightwing defenders of Muslim Canadian women now?

As stated by Canadian Cynic: Hello? Blogging Tories? *Tap*. *Tap*. Is this thing on?

Indeed. When the Kingston police charged 3 suspects who were family members of of Zainab, Geeti and Sahar Shafia and of Rona Amir Mohammed with their murders, the Blogging Tories were all over the case like white on Wonder Bread. The blogging air was blue with indignation, recriminations and outrage. Feminists / progressives stood accused of callous indifference to the death of these women.

"Honour kiiiiiiillings!!!" was howled and shrieked over and over and over again by the usual rightwing conservative reformaTory sycophants.

Now observe the MASSIVE silence over in their ranks as the facts regarding the shameful treatment Suaad Hagi Mohamud received from Canadian officials at the embassy are published and broadcast - information that progressive bloggers and media have been saying for weeks now.

The difference?

Suaad Hagi Mohamud is still very much alive. When she gets home, she will give her son three months worth of hugs.

Oh. And among those who demonstrated the most callous bureaucratic and racist indifference to her plight are Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan and Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney - all non-muslim white men of privilege and members of Stephen Harper's Conservative Government.

UPDATE: Hostile staff at the Canadian consulate are not apologizing & they are being surly and unhelpful, as observed by Dr Dawg.

Check out Broadsides, for Antonia's take on the double-speak/double-standard of the HarperCons.