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French Citizen, Liberals, Media

"What You See Is What You Get" – Stephane Dion

(On stage at the Liberal Convention)

By Dick Field

Monday, December 11, 2006

What we got was not what M. Dion promised at the Liberal Leadership Convention.

What we saw was a genuine, sincere, humble and rather attractive young man. He was an experienced and capable Minister in the Cabinet of the previous two Liberal governments. He was also a loyal federalist and a 100% Canadian of Quebecoise background, possibly a new generation candidate for the office of the Prime Minister of Canada.

What we did not see but also got was a 50% Canadian and a 50% French citizen.

To say the least, there seems to have been a planned deception on the part of the backers of M. Dion to hide this inconvenient truth from the Convention's viewing public and perhaps even from many of the official voting delegates at the Convention itself.

as far as M. Dion is concerned, it is obvious from his latest statements that he didn't believe it was a factor worth considering in his bid for leadership. One wonders if Mr. Kennedy, a competing Liberal contender for leadership of the Party, knew of M. Dion's French citizenship before he supported him.

The Canadian mass media, as usual, appears to be in the pocket of the Liberal establishment either through the advertising dollars and other benefits they receive or worse, because of their inbred antipathy to a free and democratic society. It took Ezra Levant of the Western Standard magazine, writing in the Calgary Sun, to spill the beans.

Congratulations on discovering the deception, Ezra.

The Toronto Star, Canada's largest paper (by bulk and circulation) did not even write about this startling news for some days after it was made public and then only as a brief column on the fourth page of their paper. It took days after the Liberal convention before CTV, CBC and the numerous other leftist media in Canada reported or discussed this otherwise front page news. It is obvious that they knew that the Liberals had shot themselves in the foot by selecting M.Dion as their leader and did not wish to give the situation any wider publicity than they were ultimately forced to do.

Think of the reverse situation had Mr. Harper turned out to be a dual citizen of Canada and the United States in a similar scenario. We would have been bombarded with a never-ending sanctimonious diatribe of the evil of it all, ad nauseam.

Unfortunately, the Liberal politician's reaction is not universally condemning of their potential Prime Minister being half a Canadian citizen and half a French citizen. To Mr. Kennedy's credit, he has indicated that he feels a Prime Minister must not have or appear to have a conflict of interest or a divided loyalty.

M. Dion apparently received this citizenship from his mother, who is or was a French citizen. It has as yet to be made clear whether M. Dion applied for the citizenship or was automatically assumed by France to be a French citizen because of his mother's citizenship. He calls it a "gift" from his mother. What does that mean?

In any event, M. Dion has now realized that it may be a problem with many people, particularly with English speaking Canadians and if necessary, he will give up his French citizenship. This somewhat bothersome attitude does not demonstrate a whole-hearted willingness to give up his "gifted" citizenship of France for the honour of perhaps being the next Prime Minister of all of us. It is a view in a similar vein to Mr. Conrad Black's feeling that he should not have to give up his "born in Canada" citizenship for the honour of becoming a Knight of the United Kingdom.

In Mr. Black's case, this writer agrees that we do not want knighthood titles given to Canadian citizens. This sort of thing smacks of a type of cast-in-stone recognition of a class system that was long ago dismissed by Canada. However, Mr. Black was a dual citizen of Canada and the UK at the time and thus was legally entitled as a British citizen to receive his Knighthood. M. Chretien, the then Prime Minister of Canada, thought differently and forced him to resign his Canadian citizenship. The case is a classic example of a dual citizenship problem.

In fact, the citizenship laws of France could possibly be employed by the government of France to cancel the French citizenship of M. Dion should he, as Prime Minister of Canada, act against the best interests of France. Here is a portion of the French law on loss of French nationality:

art. 23-7: a French person, who actually behaves as a national of a foreign country may, where he has the nationality of that country, be declared to have lost French nationality by decree with the assent of the Conseil d'Etat.

art.art.23-8: Loses French nationality a French person who, filling an employment in a foreign army or public service or in an international organization of which France is not a member or more generally providing his assistance to it, did not stop his assistance notwithstanding the order of the Government.

The party concerned shall be declared by decree in Conseil d'Etat to have lost French nationality unless, within the period prescribed by the order and which may not be shorter than fifteen days or longer than two months, he stops his occupation.

Where the opinion of the Conseil d'Etat is adverse, the measure provided for in the preceding paragraph may be adopted only by a decree in Council of Ministers.

as a 100% Canadian, this writer deplores the devaluation of our citizenship. It is difficult to conceive of 50% Canadians holding political, civil or judicial office. When political or legal decisions are to be rendered in respect to Canadian interests or by our civil services or the courts, we must be sure they are 100% Canadian-made decisions.

as has been said, M. Dion, should he ever be in conflict with the foregoing law, may find himself in a very awkward position. Canada does not need such ambiguity.

It is wrong to think that Canadians, who are also the citizens of foreign countries, even if those countries are friendly powers, can detach themselves from their "home" country's interests. They are always exposed to being in a conflict of interest situation, regardless of the law. This is even more pertinent when the 50% Canadian citizen's other country is or may be in political or military conflict with Canada or has laws totally alien to those in Canada.

The devaluing of Canadian citizenship is now accepted by many as indicative of the concept of a wider, borderless world. These people feel that we need the UN or some distant unelected foreign political body to set and enforce our laws for us. The "One World Order" types really think that the simplicity of being ruled from one "high command of infallible governance" is preferable to hundreds of nation states governing themselves as free and functioning democracies.

These internationalist dreamers are dangerous power seekers. They have just given or are about to give the UN its own tax base. This billion dollar boondoggle is to be a worldwide airline tax on every international flight. The purpose is to permit the UN to establish its own armies, make the UN independent of its member states and enable them fund whatever laws or programs they can cook up in the name of the new international social-political order. This tax is tantamount to funding a Grand Demagogic Order of Masterminds to forcefully supercede all the freedoms we liberal democracies have inherited from terrible struggles of our forefathers over the last 900 years.

Canadian citizenship is the symbol of our past and the birthright of our free people. It must be prized, not for its convenience but for what it represents and the loyalty it demands. Newcomers to Canada must be brought to understand the principles and values of the society they are joining and the demands this society will make of them.

a three-year convenience passport citizenship and a swearing-in ceremony saying the new immigrant is a Canadian Citizen, while retaining his or her source county's citizenship, is a totally dangerous fraud. One cannot have total loyalty to two or more countries, especially countries with alien and conflicting laws and practices.

The world is very troubled today and will become more so in the future. Many societies are hundreds of years behind in their political and social development. Conflicts will arise more and more as populations expand and fight to get into the gardens of freedom we have built in our functioning democracies. We will learn, at terrible cost, if we do not demand 100% loyalty from all our citizens, particularly if they begin to participate in leadership roles.

While M. Dion is but one equivocating example of the problem, the Lebanese dual citizen opportunists that took us for a huge financial ride in the recent Israeli-Hezbollah war is another. The list goes on. The time to stop the rot is now. all Canadians must be 100% Canadians or no citizenship should be granted.

Those who now have dual citizenship and aspire to leadership roles in government, the military, police, the civil service or the judiciary must become 100% Canadians.

We must demand that Parliament pass a law requiring dual citizenship citizens to make a choice within a specified period of time. The choice must be that if you wish to retain your Canadian citizenship you must be a 100% loyal Canadian. Dual citizenship must be stopped, no exceptions!