Conservative MP apologizes for racial epithet

Rookie Conservative MP Steven Fletcher has apologized

I wasn't upset about the offensive comment but I am not Japanese. This is an MP and a representative of the people, it a hard job. My sympathies go out to him but I wish he didn't say that.

I put no weight what so ever in the fact that he was a conservative mp. He's just young and made a mistake. I just hope he realizes why it was a mistake.

The things the conservatives have been spouting off in the last few days shows their true colors. They should know better then to say things against minorities and people of the opposite sex . We all have times when our stress levels soar , but they are in government to serve our interests , not to degrade the very ones they are supposed to be serving .

What a frigging joke and the reason the world is going into the shitter. BIG DEAL you change a couple words but the meaning is the same, so someones feelings may have been hurt. HFC we handed out bags of money to these people here, because we tossed them in camps. They as a country still won't come clean and admit the crap they pulled off with POW'S. So the guy is human when he should have been a political clone (sounding very starwarsy)and quoted his grandfather. I can hear the wwwwwwaaaaaaambulance coming :evil:

I understand his anger at the Japanese during WWII, and I doubt he feels that way about the Japanese now. He used the wrong words, without thinking, and he has apologized for it.

Yes Lily but war is hell. I know of some German folks that live near me that said"If Canada was to go to war with the fatherland again they would side with Germany" So even though in hindsight it may have been wrong and amends not made soon enough, something was done.

Did you actually read my post Lily or just take out what you wanted. I agreed with you it was a shitty deal but also stated that their was know way of knowing a possible enemy in a wartime situation. Look at this.

POW Camps WW2

Japanese Internment Camps

Granted a shitty deal but who really had that end of the stick?????

Odd politics by the NDP. I thought you were supposed to be shocked an appaulled like the Liberals. Use this as just one more example of Conservative bigotry.. like the gays in a store comment a couple years ago. Hammer, hammer, hammer and take any small crack and rip it into a big hole.

And they say "He chose some bad wording, he apoligized for the wording, end of story". That just doesn't seem like Canadian politics. Civility? In Canadian politics? Where the hell did THAT come from?

Lily,

The MP in question, Steven Fletcher said the following:

http://www.canada.com/national/story.ht ... a086c95dbf
Fletcher's grandfather was captured by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore and held in a prisoner-of-war camp. At the camp, Allied soldiers were used as forced labour to help build the railroad depicted in the movie Bridge over the River Kwai.
"They used my grandfather's friend for bayonet practice," said Fletcher. "They put my grandfather on a raft when he was ill to die. They shot people indiscriminately.
"In the context of the time, in World War II, they treated people in ways that were barbaric and disgusting, and it should never be forgotten, and it should never be allowed to happen again."

Only a political incompetent would compare the internment of the Japanese to the atrocities inflicted on our POW’s by the brutal Japanese.

I agree the internment of various people’s by the Dominion government in the Second World War , by today’s standards, is regrettable. But it didn’t happen today, it happened after Peal Harbour and Singapore.

Trying to examine a historical action in the cold light of modern political correctness is an invalid analysis.

The internment process for so called “enemy aliens” was something most of the then free world was doing in the face of the very succesful forces of oppression , the Nazi’s , the Italian Fascists and the Empire of Japan.

Let’s not forget that the Japanese military were committing terrible atrocities in China well before WWII and the Canadian public were well aware of that.
This is the atmosphere that the internment of the Japanese-Canadians, who incidently had their property confiscated but were not bayoneted or starved to death, or didn’t die in their thousands of untreated diseases.

No comparison Lily and shame on you for even thinking that way.

Hey, I think he hit the nail on the head, in the context he used "Japs WERE bastrds" He was refering to the enemy in a brutal war, if you have read anything about the way they treated people then (I AM TALKING ABOUT THE ENEMY, not Japanese Canadians). It affected his family, something he grew up with, I have a similar situation with a great Uncle from the first world war, he was in the British Army, gravely wounded and left to die by the rapidly retreating French troops who ran past him PDT_Armataz_01_33

, ignoring his requests for assistance, he layed out there for several days, surviving until British troops came forward and recovered him. PDT_Armataz_01_35

I grew up hearing this story and others like it from older people from my family (most are passed on now) they held a disdain for France as result of this incident.

As for internment of the Japanese Canadians, well we were not a political correct tree hugging nation in 1941 so this was the result, I don't really think it was a good thing, but that goes with the times, none of us were here then so I am not saying I am sorry for it, same with all the first nations crap, I was not around so I owe nobody anything!

I could give a rats ass if this is a PC country now or not. Racial epithets have no place, period. That lad can kiss off the Japanese vote of that is what his base of support thinks of them.

It is bad that it was said in the 1st place but a 'forced' apology would be even worse, especially if his actions becomes justified with the arguments presented above.

OF COURSE it was another era but as a representative he has a responsibility to all Canadians, not all Canadians are white male Anglo Saxons. He has a higher standard to uphold.