Saturday snark

A few items this morning that Canadians ought to be snarky about:

• Another Invisible Man. That would be Peter Van Loan, Minister of Public Safety, the other villain of the piece in the Suaad Hagi Mohamud scandal. Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs, is responsible for consular services in Nairobi; the Canadian Border Services Agency, also heavily involved in Mohamud's mistreatment, is part of Van Loan's portfolio.
  
  As the linked article reveals, Foreign Affairs will in fact be conducting its own "full review" of the case. Like the CBSA "full account," we aren't told anything more about it. Safe prediction of the year: some munchkin's head may roll, but in general each institution will exonerate itself.
  
  
• Stephen Harper urges caution. While on the subject of Mohamud, now aboard a plane bringing her back home, check out this comment our PM made in Chelsea, Quebec yesterday, as reported in the Toronto Star:
  
  "We do our best to aid those who are in various forms of difficulty, but ultimately we're not the sovereign government once people leave our territory," he said in Chelsea, Que., adding that Foreign Affairs "does what it can to aid people, but we always advise people to be cautious when they're travelling."
  
  He's absolutely right, of course: being cautious is very sound advice, particularly for our duskier citizens. Going abroad while Black? Avoid Canadian consular officials at all costs, even if you have to bribe your way out of a jam. Otherwise they could seize and void your passport, send it to officials of the government that is sovereign, and urge that you be prosecuted for impersonating yourself. They will then carry out four separate investigations to prove "conclusively" that you aren't you.
  
  Alternatively, you might consider skin-lighteners and a change of name--"Brenda Martin" sounds like a good one, but I believe it's taken.
  
  
• Harper thumps the country formerly known as "Burma." And good on him: the continued persecution of Aung San Suu Kyi by the thuggish military junta that rules the place is indeed "unwarranted, unjustified and vindictive," just as he says.
  
  Indeed, Harper once had this comment about the generals running the place: "This is a regime that hasn’t been known to take the interests and rights of its people to heart. We know about their abuses, not just of democracy but also of human rights in Burma."
  
  Oh, wait. The Canadian Border Services Agency is on the verge of deporting Nay Myo Hein back to that country to face possible execution for deserting from the armed forces run by those self-same generals. But "[t]here is no serious possibility that the claimant’s removal to Myanmar will subject him to persecution," according to CBSA. UPDATE*
  
  Maybe the Conservatives think Burma and Myanmar are two different countries.
  
  In other news, a former prominent Liberal has established his own Myanmar connection.
  
  
• And this one's for the NDP, bless 'em.
  
  
  

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*Good news! The deportation order has been reversed.

[H/t Sassy, b/c]