Chan's Personal Blog

I was watching TV coverage of the first democractic Iraqi elections (in a long time) for most of the afternoon, and it was amazing to watch. There were images from Iraq of people breaking out into spontaneous dance and song outside some of the polling areas. Cars were driving by honking their horns in celebration. Formerly repressed women were given the chance to vote. The scenes from Iraq reminded me of the euphoric celebration that broke out when Saddam's government fell.

I think the most impressive aspect of this vote is how many people came out to vote despite the threat of violence, and various boycotts that were declared. For weeks, the terrorists have been threatening to kill voters and their children if they dare participate. Despite this very real danger, the people defiantly voted. There was some violence however. From this article entitled, "Iraqis Defy Threats to Vote For Assembly", it talks about some violence that occured. The most troubling one I read was about a minibus carrying a group of voters to a polling station, and a suicide bomber got on the bus and blew it up, killing at least four people.

I found it very amazing how many people turned out to vote, and how important voting was to these people. The article says that entire families showed up to vote, wearing their best clothes. We in the West take our democracy too much for granted I think. Consider that voter turnout in the last Canadian election was at its lowest ever; we have become too lazy, too ill-informed, too uncaring to excercise our right to vote. We don't have to worry about getting shot at while travelling to the polls. Meanwhile you have people in Iraq who are literally risking their lives to vote.

The best picture I found that I felt personified today's events is the following picture. When an individual finishes voting, an election officer puts a stain on the voters finger which indicates the individual has voted, and it prevents the individual from voting again.



One of the most moving testimonies I saw was this Iraqi man who was saying, he can't imagine how much Iraqi, American, British, and Allied blood that was sacrificed so that he could vote, and that this stain on my hand represents their sacrifice.

Another interesting thing I saw on TV was about blogs on today's vote. Apparently there have been a lot of chatter on politically right-leaning blogs about the success of this election, while left-leaning blogs have been fairly silent. Some people on the left don't want to give George W. Bush any credit for what's going on right now in Iraq, and that this election is completely illegitimate. My personal opinion is that this issue shouldn't be a political game. The important thing is that Iraq is moving towards freedom, and this vote is an important step in the right direction. Yes this isn't the magic bullet that will instantly stop the violence in Iraq, but as democracy is being born, there will be birthing pains.

We are witnessing history...

Gay marriage is one of those touchy subjects that I'd rather avoid like the plague, but due to its urgency and importance, I will write on this subject. So, please keep the discussions civil and respect my right to express my views. If you're going to call me a homophobe, a religious right wing Bible thumping nut, an intolerant individual, so be it, you have proved that you cannot have an adult conversation. This article will probably come back to bite me in the butt.

So I was reading the newspaper today about how the Canadian Liberal Party is planning to introduce legislation to legalize same-sex marriage in January. They hope to have this matter concluded by Summer. That is when the alarm bells went off in my mind, as the Liberals are trying to rush this matter through parliament. The next thing in my mind was, crap ... it's already January.

This is one of those issues that I cannot accept. Let it be known that in the past, I had always been a supporter of the Liberal Party. Scandel after scandel in the past (prior to this election), I tolerated; the decimating of our military, I reluctantly swallowed. Let it also be known that I am a very loyal individual, I usually stick with the stores that treat me well, and I stick with my political parties. But the gay marriage issue was so unpalatable that I lost all faith and patience with the Liberal Party. I no longer could support this party. Shortly after this period, the sponsorship scandel broke, and that was the last nail in the coffin.

So what's my beef against this whole matter you ask? I'll skip explaining the most obvious of my rejections which stems from my religious beliefs as you've probably already heard it a million times.

Open The Floodgates

Legalizing same-sex marriage will weaken marriage that much more. How long do you think it will take before polygamists figure out that they too are being discriminated against, and demand that polygamy be legal again? Not possible you say? I don't think so. Consider that polygamy is probably more 'natural' than homosexuality is. Also consider that many countries in the world still permit polygamy. One of my professors was from Algeria, and he said his brother back home has two wives. Our marriage laws also prevent adults marrying children. Shouldn't we not discriminate against them? Our marriage laws prevents people from marrying relatives. The list goes on...

Unaccountable Courts

The other issue is how undemocratic the whole situation has been. I will cite a few things from this article. Firstly, parliament has already voted to preserve the traditional definition of marriage, not once, not twice, but three times already. When they voted on this in 1999, it passed 216 votes for, 55 votes against.

Now because gay activists didn't get their way in parliament, they took it to the courts. From the article:



In either case, the Liberals managed to get a ruling that seemed to help their case to push same-sex marriage through. However, the ruling they passed never stated that same-sex marriage was a human right; it merely said that the government may redefine marriage, not that it must do so.

No Free Vote

The other thing that strokes me the wrong way about this is the lack of a vote which seems very undemocratic to me. This article brings up a few good points. It notes that other minority rights battles that had been fought previously in Canada, like allowing women to vote, was put to a vote, and the majority supported it. Yet, this time with same-sex marriage, this is not the case. There is no referendum on this issue. This seems like a very important issue that should be put to a vote.

However, Paul Martin is giving us the next best thing which he says parliament will be allowed to have a free vote where members of parliament can vote whatever they want. EXCEPT members of the Liberal cabinet MUST vote for same-sex marriage or else they will lose their positions. This doesn't seem free at all. Could you imagine if at work, your company says, you must believe in same-sex marriage or you'll be fired. This is definitely a huge test, vote for your principles, or vote to keep your job. It appears Paul Martin is stacking the deck as he has 37 members in his cabinet, so that's 37 votes he can count on for sure.

Write The Government

The best way to excercise your democratic rights is to tell the government what you think, and the best thing you can do right now is write a letter to the government. Even if you are for same-sex marriage, you should excercise your democratic rights and tell the government what you think.

I came across this template letter that should be useful:


Sending a letter to government doesn't cost anything, Canada Post ships them to Ottawa for free. Spend a few minutes to write to those in power, and you can forever change the outcome of Canada. Be aware that those who receive your letters are legally required to read each and every letter they get. If you have time, you should also write to your member of parliament. If you don't know who your member of parliament is, or you don't know their address, you can find it here.

Whether you are for or against same-sex marriage, I urge you to write government and make democracy work. "Our democracy is gradually fading away under these leaders and so far the MPs and the Canadian people have allowed them to get away with it, but perhaps this will be the straw that broke the camel's back."

Thank you for reading, and respecting a matter that is close to my heart.

I was meaning to write about this a while back, but this story got pushed aside because of the tsunami coverage. Anyways, I finally have time to write about this subject that is important to me ... undermining the Chinese Communist Government. Muhahaha .

In this article, Canadian intelligence warns that the Chinese Communist government is commiting acts of espionage against Canada. They're essentially spying on our economic and political activities, as well as stealing classified information about our technologies. An excerpt from the article:


This is alarming that China is stealing our research and technology and are attempting to militarize them. These military applications can very well threaten our allies in the region. I was reading a paper on China's defence policies which kind of outlines what they're thinking about future conflicts. The paper contains predictions of a war against Taiwan in the coming decade. They also project that they will probably have a showdown against the U.S. military in the near future as well. (A little background information for those who are interested. During the People's revolution in China, the communists took over most of China. The pro-democracy forces were defeated and a lot of them fled to Taiwan. These democratic forces are essentially independent of China, ie they have their own government. China claims that Taiwan is a part of Chinese territory so they want control of the island back. The reason why China hasn't already taken back their so called territory is because the Americans are committed in defending a fellow democracy. So, the Americans have been selling high tech weapons to Taiwan, as well as guarenteeing their security. If China were to invade Taiwan, the Americans will most likely step into the battle.)

Opposition members of parliament are demanding that the government protest what the Chinese government has done. They want the government to lodge a formal complain to the Chinese embassy, cut off foreign aid, etc. Prime Minister Paul Martin is scheduled to visit China sometime this month, and opposition leaders are asking Paul Martin to cancel his trip to China in protest. But for some reason, our all knowing all wise Prime Minister, Paul Martin, has done nothing about this case of espionage. I guess he doesn't want to offend one of his important trading partners. Bah.

As protest, I think we should get even with those communists. Let them send their bright students and scientists to study in Canada and steal our technology. However, we should teach them the wrong way of doing things, then they will bring back false information to their military, and voila we have a geniune counter-espionage operation. j/k. They'll be building new weapons based on junk science.