Jason Kenney

Jason Kenney: Pakistan has been an unstable nuclear power, with an estimated 100 bombs. It has an army of 600,000 battling homegrown terrorism. It is beset by corruption and mafia. Still, it cant be ignored. With 180 million people, it is the fifth largest democracy, albeit a troubled one, and the second largest Muslim nation. It is also central to Afghanistan and, therefore, the U.S. and Canada. Its relations with neighbouring China, India and Iran also matter to that troubled region, according to The Star. In 2011, Jason Kenney, minister in charge of ethnic votes, went to Pakistan for the funeral of a junior cabinet minister, a Christian, killed for speaking up for a Christian woman accused of insulting Islam. This seemingly laudable gesture was anything but; Kenney was nowhere to be seen when a far more powerful Pakistani politician, a prominent Muslim, was assassinated for speaking out for the same Christian woman and even daring to condemn fellow-Muslims for abusing the blasphemy law against minorities. Kenney was only keen to show solidarity with the Pakistani Christians here, especially in the Toronto suburban ridings that the Tories were targeting and Pakistan provides another example of how Stephen Harper can let his partisan Conservative interests dictate Canadian foreign policy. Yet the only real interest Harper has shown is to exploit one of Pakistans fault lines, to milk votes from two small persecuted communities from Pakistan who have migrated here, the Christians and Ahmadis. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.