Duped

It would seem that Jason Kenney was duped into speaking at a rally organized by Iranian supporters of a banned terrorist group. The rally on Parliament Hill on April 6th appears to have been organized by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the political wing of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). The PMOI is one of the names used by the MEK, or Mujahedin-e-Khalq, an Iranian rebel group formally designated as a terrorist organization by the governments of Canada in May 2005, the United States and the European Union.

By reading the above linked article from the Star, it is clear that Mr.Kenney had no idea that he was speaking with a group listed as a terrorist organization, and states "I guess I was stung."


The criticism has already begun and although I think the comparison between this and the recent comments by Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj are not really valid, it does cause me some concern.

Before anyone starts in on me for being an apologist, give it a rest as these 2 events are not the same, nor are the motives.

The MPs on the Hezbo-tour were fully aware of what they were saying and about which group/s they were speaking about. The supposed apology from BW was to and for the Liberal party for the damage he had caused, but he never repudiated his comments about Hezbollah or the one about Israel practicing 'state terrorism', showing that he still does not get it. Kenney on the other hand did something without knowing all of the facts.

Does this excuse Kenney? In my opinion it does not.

He has a responsibility to make damn sure that he knows who he is speaking to. A google search won't cut it, and asking a group representative if his buddies are bad people or good people is not the most accurate ways to get at the truth about the matter. In my opinion this is a case of poor judgement and not doing the work required to make sure something will not come back to bite you in the ass in the future. I hope he enjoys the teeth marks, and uses them to remember to exercise much better judgement in the future.


A bit off topic, but how was it that this group managed to set up on Parliament Hill anyway? Is some kind of permit not required for these types of things or is it a free for all? I am wondering because if the RCMP or who ever looks at security/permits etc allowed this 'banned' group to set up, how was Kenney to know?

Updates;

From where I sit the Star took some liberties with the truth on this one, as the links to any banned group were very thin indeed. This helps explain why the RCMP had no issues with the rally because the group was not on the list.

This didn't stop the Liberals from trying to make a story out of it and dropping Stockwell Day into the mix as well, but all would not be so clean cut as it turns out there are a few Liberals also knee deep in this mess. Here is a nice example of not standing behind what you say.

In the end this was a non story. I have received comment that I was too hard on Jason Kenney as he really did do nothing wrong, and I do agree he did nothing wrong. However I still stand by what I wrote above. When even non stories like this can be used by those who will do almost anything to see the CPC damaged, extra caution must be used to avoid placing yourself into these type of situations where doubt can be cast. It was poor judgement and I hope lessons were learned.

I also learned a few things as well, including not treating a Star article as real news.