Stephen Brown, FrontPage magazine: Chrétien: Hamas Isn't a Terrorist Group

I'm with Stephen when he says it's ridiculous Cretien won't recognize Hamas' charitable wing as a front for their terrorist group, but he goes way too far when he ridicules Canada for withdrawing their troops from Afghanistan.

The reasons for the withdrawal are well understood, and it's shameful to suggest our troops didn't do enough to help. I haven't heard any American media or politician say a bad word about Canada's pullout. In fact, all you hear is praise for a job well done and that their abilities will be missed.

This Toronto resident is definitely listening to one side of the story and not the other. He blames Cretien for taking so long to visit Ground Zero, and refusing to hold an official memorial for Canadian victims of the WTC collapse. I'm speculating, but I'll bet that he showed up soon after he was given permission / scheduled in. Stephen apparently missed it when Dubya called Mexico its "most important trading partner" and thanked Britain during his State of the Union address, but completely left out mention of Canada's contribution, which at the time far outweighed Britain's in every aspect. He must have also missed GWB's snub in Kananaskis when he hotdogged with Blair during the opening day of the G8 summit while Cretien was greeting the other leaders on red carpet. He also must have missed the fact that British Colubmia's economy is in the tank and thousands of families are in dire economic trouble because of illegal softwood lumber tariffs which have caused much of BC's logging and milling industry to gring to a halt.

Stephen similarly blasts Canadian policy in his August 12th column, where he derides the Foreign Affair office for not being behind the US, nee, the Bush desire to rid Iraq of Saddam Hussein. Nevermind that the only country on Earth to back Bush's Iraq plan is Isreal, and even staunch US ally Britain is echoing the Canadian policy.