Very Important Refugees

This post is not about Minister of Immigration Jason Kenney willfully disregarding the rule of law. Others have already scoped out and plumbed the depths of that topic.

This is about the Gaddafi⎮Kadhafi family: Papa Dicktator and his progeny - Mohamed, Seif Al-Islam, Al Saidi, Motassim Bilal (aka Hannibal) and Aisha.

Once upon a time Silvio and Muammar were tight friends - perhaps allies is the more precise term. They

agreed to work together to stem the increasing numbers of migrants seeking a better life in Europe. In addition to those leaving from North Africa, thousands more have been moving up the Red Sea from Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia and other countries. Their point of entry is Italy–specifically, the small Italian island of Lampedusa, which lies in the Mediterranean midway between Libya and Sicily.

In 2009, Qaddafi and Berlusconi made an agreement that became part of an open and often vicious campaign against migrants: Libya would try to keep them from leaving in the first place; if they got out, Italy would send them back to Libya without providing them a chance to make asylum claims.

Human Rights Watch has documented the attacks on migrants in a detailed report calledPushed Back, Pushed Around: Italy’s Forced Return of Boat Migrants and Asylum Seekers, Libya’s Mistreatment of Migrants and Asylum Seekers.

More here.

So now Gaddafi clan members are attempting to escape retribution. Aisha is on the run; the UN revoked her "special goodwill ambassador" status which means her diplomatic status has been withdrawn. A few years ago, insiders speculated she and Berlusconi had a romantic connection, albeit unconsumated because Aisha, at the age of 31, was too old for him.

The Italian Prime Minister faces serious legal problems right now; his political future hangs by a thread and a furious population would not react kindly to his decision to provide refuge to anyone fleeing Libya, whether wealthy or poor.

Aisha Gaddafi may have better luck with Jason Kenney; it's not clear that he's taken any action toward deporting members of the Ben Ali clan from Canada. He and his Cabinet colleagues appear to have *flexible* standards when it comes to enforcing policies, if deposed tyrants, their families and their ill-got assets are under consideration. Other family sponsorship applicants bereft of such privilege and wealth can wait - forever.

One word of caution: if Kenney proposes to wed Aisha for the purpose of getting laid sponsoring her father's application to enter Canada, he will have to convert to Islam in order to satisfy critics and to demonstrate the marriage is legitimate. Wonder how the ReformaTories' base supporters would react to that?

Wanted: One Deaf, Blind, Mute Catholic Virgin for Jason Kenney.

C'mon! Doesn't he deserve it?

He transformed the shameful backlog of refugee claims produced by his own Con government’s refusal to staff key positions into an achievement without even implying that Liberals were to blame.

He chastized the provinces for their naughty tendency to provide reasonable social safety nets to their neediest citizens.

He ensured that key information about same-sex marriage and sexual orientation rights in Canada was kept out of the new orientation guide for immigrants.

He ingratiated himself with strident defenders of Israel’s undeclared genocidal war upon the Palestinian people by adhering to the notion moderate Canadian Christian organizations such as Anglicans, Quakers and Mennonites are extremists.

This last strategy is critical for theocratic ideologues within Harper’s ReformaTory bully squad.

Though a self-proclaimed devout member of the Roman Catholic Church, Kenney is unmarried. Surely the CPC could find a suitable breeding heifer wife for this splendid specimen of hefty rightwing zealot masculinity?

Won’t somebody please think of the children?

Exactly so. Along with support for Israel so that The Prophecy can happen* doesn't someone have to spawn the Anti-Christ?

Bonus! Photo Caption Contest. Leave your entry in the comments.

*This theology which is an aberrant form of Christianity (rejected by most major Christian churches) teaches that the Old Testament prophecies were destined to be replayed in the modern world, leading to the Day of Judgement and the Final Battle of Armageddon as proclaimed in the New Testament.

According to this school of thought, the ingathering of the Jews into Israel in 1948 was part of God's plan to bring on the Final Battle, in which the forces of Good (which fundamentalist Christians see as the U.S. and its allies) would confront the forces of Evil (correspondingly seen as the Soviet Union and its allies--Arabs and Muslims). This battle would lead to the destruction of the earth, which for this theology is a necessity before Jesus can return to save "the select, the believers".

This Christian fundamentalist view maintained that, although all Jews must ultimately be converted into Christianity in order to fulfill the prophecies, Israel must be supported at all costs. Hence the strong support given by the religious right to Israel. From here.