During the last election campaign Justin Trudeau pledged to repeal a Harper 2014 amendment to the Citizenship Act that allowed the government to strip citizenship from Canadian dual nationals convicted of terrorism or espionage.  Along with other hackneyed lines such as "Because it's 2015" and "Sunny ways", Trudeau defended convicted traitors of their right to keep their Canadian citizenship by decreeing "A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian."

It seemed odd that Trudeau was campaigning on taking a steadfast stance on protecting convicted terrorists' right to their Canadian citizenship after committing treasonous acts against our nation, but the bizarre position taken by Trudeau somehow passed with little follow-up scrutiny by the press because it fit into his Liberals' promise of a new government giving tolerance and compassion to all—including an increased number of Syrian refugees as well as our plotters of domestic massacres.

Now enter the Maryam Monsef birthplace controversy a year later when Trudeau—now in power—has delivered on his promise to stop the revocation of dual national traitors' Canadian citizenship.  When the story first broke about how Monsef's mother had fudged her refugee and citizenship documents by writing down a fraudulent birthplace in them, the public response was incredibly divisive.

Some journalists and everyday Canadians pointed out that hundreds of Canadians have lost their citizenship for similar minor offences of misrepresentation on immigration documents.  A few Conservative opponents exploited the issue by pointing out how there could be "serious consequences" for Monsef.  Others pointed out the unfairness and double-standard of there being no repercussions for the cabinet minister while other Canadians caught with fraudulent documents continue to be deported.

Many others, in the counterargument camp, claimed it was an overblown tempest in a teacup because refugees are often displaced people and a fraudulent birthplace seems like an irrelevant and trivial technicality to punish someone over.  Gerald Butts, Trudeau's principal adviser, dismissed the story when he tweeted, "The Globe and Mail endorses a homegrown Canadian birther movement. Breathtaking."  Others in the media, like Tabatha Southey and her piece "Birtherism comes to Canada with the Maryam Monsef 'scandal'", parroted the idea Canadians giving stock to the Monsef controversy were nothing more than Canadian "birthers" as disgraceful as Trump and his ilk, never mind the fact that there are no parallels between the Monsef's proven birthplace discrepancy and Obama's birthplace wild conspiracy theory.

To Butts, Southey and ilk, anyone questioning or reporting Monsef's story was either a compassionless political opportunist or a bigoted xenophobe—or likely both.  They also expected Canadians to take Monsef at her word when she said she didn't know she was born in Iran until The Globe and Mail scoop broke.  Yet, earlier this year, Robert Fife—the reporter who broke the story—asked Monsef on CTV's Question Period if she was born in Afghanistan and she answered ambiguously, "I believe I was."  It is also strange that other members of the Peterborough community claim to have known about the fraudulent birthplace documents before the story broke, but Monsef herself was left in the dark all this time.  Her claim of ignorance looks even more shaky when after the story broke she said she "mostly" learned about it from The Globe and Mail piece.

Tragically and infinitely more important, what has been lost in this trumped-up partisan rhetoric from both sides is the government is continuing to strip everyday Canadians of their citizenship for similar trivial reasons as that of Monsef's case.  Canadian immigrants—in many cases productive Canadian citizens for many years—are having their citizenship revoked, without a hearing, for minor errors or inaccuracies in their immigration documents.  In some cases, Canadians have been stripped of their citizenship because—just like in Maryam Monsef's predicament—of no fault of their own their parents misrepresented some of their personal information to the government.

In an article from The Globe and Mail last week—"Liberals will not grant a moratorium on citizenship revocation"—the government announced it will not take swift action in helping Canadians being deported over minor falsifications like Monsef's:

"Laura Track, a lawyer with the [British Columbia Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers], said her team was blown away by the government's response.

'We're incredibly disappointed to learn that the government simply wants to press forward with stripping citizenship from Canadians under a process that it has acknowledged is unfair,' Ms. Track said."

In another Globe and Mail article from last week, Immigration Minister John McCallum had said the government would look into putting a moratorium on deporting all of these Canadians without hearings.  Yet McCallum was unaware that he needed to act by the following day to the Federal Court application in order to halt the often unfair government process of stripping hundreds of Canadians of their citizenship.

One would think this would be a priority for a government that claims to have compassion for all, but instead and ironically the CBC reported that Trudeau's Liberal government has been revoking citizenship at a much higher rate than Harper's government.

To top it off, the PM is on record endorsing the revocation process: "Revocation of citizenship can and should happen in situations of becoming a Canadian citizen under false pretenses.  Indeed, when people have lied on their applications, those applications get rescinded, even years later."

So here is the million-dollar question: if Trudeau believes in "sunny ways" and "a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian", then why does he allow the revocation of Canadians' citizenship for trivial falsifications in immigration documents—unless it is his own cabinet minister—but believes dual national traitors threatening and planning to kill Canadians should always keep theirs?

Written by Graeme C. Gordon

According to the Liberal Party of Ontario, Patrick Brown has been channeling his inner Donald Trump lately by adopting the U.S. President's dirty style of politics.  (No, clean politics isn't an oxymoron, as Justin "Sunny Ways" Trudeau proves everyday with his smiles and socks.)  I mean, all this time, all the signs have been lurking underneath a repressed Brown, subdued by his handlers as they try to present a subtler version of Trump's populism.

The first tell-tale sign of a Trumpster is blatant, bald-faced disregard for the truth.  The Toronto Stars intrepid Washington correspondent Daniel Dale has become the official fact-checker of Donald Trump.  He's meticulously documented every equivocation, fib, and lie coming out of the big mouth of the bloviator-in-chief over the past two years.  There have been hundreds upon hundreds of untruths.  Unfortunately there isn't a reporter dedicated to debunking all of Brown's falsehoods, but thankfully Queen's Park press gallery members are privy to LPO press release emails from the Liberal aides fact-checking Brown's public statements.  "Patrick Brown's Double Speak on Abortion Rights", "Back to the Future — 2012 Edition — Facts Still Matter in Ontario", "Ventriloquism in Vaughn — Facts Still Matter in Ontario", "Plowing Through the Facts — Facts Still Matter in Ontario", and "Doesn't Matter Where, He Just Doesn't Care — Facts Still Matter in Ontario" are just a sampling of some of the press release emails the LPO has tirelessly provided journalists since the summer.  If you were beginning to notice a theme, you'd be right.  The Liberals have been so kind as to dedicate an entire website — http://www.factsstillmatter.ca/ â€” to push back on Brown's sophistry with nothing but pure, unadulterated, facts deduced from nothing but the Socratic method.

Brown, breaking away from the hallowed tradition of Ontario politicians telling nothing but the God-honest truth, speaks only falsehoods according to the OLP.  Brown's latest whopper, in a supposedly Trumpesque move, was to slander the honourable and irreproachable Premier Kathleen Wynne when he falsely claimed she was standing trial.  Never mind that two ongoing corruption trials involve four top Liberal aides, including Wynne's former chief of staff, the fact of the matter is that the premier has done nothing wrong herself, and she voluntarily agreed to testify as a witness.  It all parallels Trump back in 2016, when he slandered an innocent Hillary Clinton by casting aspersions on her deft handling of Benghazi and its subsequent hearings or her unfortunate but honest mistake of her handling of classified emails, which former FBI Director James Comey — an objective judge if there ever was one — exonerated her for, twice.  In due course, you'll see, Wynne's Liberal aides will be cleared of any wrongdoing as well, absolving the party.

The second unmistakably Trumpian trait Brown is starting to embody is the enjoyment of nasty attacks.  The Liberals have sounded the Trump alarm because of "disgraceful" and "personal attacks" Brown and the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario have used in their most recent television ad aimed at Wynne.  The ad shows selective headlines and excerpts from the media that mention distance memories like the gas plant scandal, and at the bottom of the screen, in ALL CAPS, it reads "THE ONTARIO LIBERAL PARTY IS POLITICALLY CORRUPT", and there is sinister background music and clinking of jail cell doors closing.  It all gives the totally false impression that the Liberals through nepotism and self-interest have sold out Ontarians, something completely outrageous to even suggest.  On top of this, Brown, like his fellow teetotaller down South, is starting to lash out wildly on Twitter.  Yesterday Brown had the impertinence to tweet that Wynne was stonewalling over chemical spills in Sarnia.  Or another reckless tweet where he mocked Wynne for doing her civic duty in testifying in Sudbury.  It's only a matter time until Nice Patrick fully transforms into rolled-up-sleeves-and-loosened-tie, monstrous Mr. Brown, bellowing "Lyin' Wynne" and "Crooked Kathleen."  Remain vigilant.

Alas, there is one area where Brown couldn't be any more absurdly different than Trump than the above satirical comparisons made above, and it's why the rest of Trump's traits uncharacteristic of Brown might stick on the Conservative leader.  Brown doesn't have the chutzpah or charisma that reality TV showman Trump does, he spent most of his political career on the back bench.  Whatever your opinion of Trump, he is a master at branding by manipulating the base impulses of the press.  Brown on the other hand, is still unknown to about half of Ontarians who don't even know who he is.  All it takes is a gaffe here and a slip-up there during election season and Brown will be portrayed by the LPO and media as the Big Bad Wolf, and seen through the just-opened eyes of sensitive leftist voters, which make up so much of the Ontario electorate, as ghastly.  That, or, God willing, Ontarians will see through this pathetic Hail Mary attempt by a Liberal party desperate to cling to power.

Written by Graeme C. Gordon