Angry in the Great White North

Jason Kenney's appearance at this rally has caused some grief:

The Liberals accused Jason Kenney of hypocrisy on Thursday, after it was revealed the Conservative MP had appeared at a rally earlier this year for an Iranian group with terrorist links.

A photo of Kenney, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's parliamentary secretary, at the April rally appears on a website for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the political wing of the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran.

The PMOI is one of the names used by Mujahedin-e-Khalq, an Iranian rebel group put on Canada's official terror list in May 2005. The U.S. and Britain have also designated it a terrorist organization.

Kenney didn't even know that the rally was for the PMOI:

The NCRI website says the April rally that Kenney attended was organized by "the Committee in Defence of Human Rights in Iran."

In an interview with the Star, Kenney said he did not remember attending the rally, then recalled an invitation from "something called the Committee for Human Rights in Iran."

The invitation came from a man Kenney said he met at the foreign affairs sub-committee on human rights.

Kenney, MP for Calgary Southeast, said he "would be shocked" to hear his picture was posted on the group's political wing website.

For this, the Liberals are tearing into him:

Liberal interim leader Bill Graham, who accepted [Borys] Wrzesnewskyj's resignation, condemned Kenney's actions on Thursday.

"I think it's so hypocritical when you heard the words that came out of his mouth a couple of days ago about the observations made about one of our members and then you find he himself is standing there embracing a terrorist group."

Liberal Denis Coderre, who was criticized for marching in a peace rally in Montreal earlier this month where Hezbollah flags were present, said Kenney should apologize and denounce the group.

"Jason Kenney, who likes to play politics and is as subtle as Barney Rubble in politics, should know better," Coderre said.

The shift in names seems to be the source of the problem. In any case, all Jason Kenney did was express support for democracy and human rights.

Obviously, if Kenney had known, as the Liberal Party seems to, which groups are which, he wouldn't have appeared. I suppose someone forgot to tell Liberal Alan Tonks, too:

In a letter addressed to the Honorable Peter MacKay, Minister of Canada's Foreign Affairs, Mr. Alan Tonks, M.P. of the House Commons asked the foreign ministry to put its weight behind an investigation in to the water pipeline explosion which left Ashraf residents and other surrounding villages without water for over a week during Iraq's hot summer days.

It is alleged that the theocratic Iranian regime attacked the pipelines in order to disrupt the Water supply of an internationally recognized and protected Iranian resistance group known as the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran. The PMOI, currently seeking refuge in Iraq, have long been advocates for democratic reforms in Iran.

Members of the PMOI are sheltered by international conventions and should be respected by lawful governments. I would urge you to intervene in this matter.

Well, if Alan Tonks, the Liberal Party's Associate Critic for Democratic Reform, says that a particular group is democratic and deserves the support of the Canadian government, who is Jason Kenney to argue?

Alan Tonk's letter is not dated. I would like to give this Liberal the benefit of the doubt, and assume that he expressed support for the PMOI before it was listed as a terrorist group.

But I can't. The problem is that the bombing of the water supply happened this July:

Following the explosion of water pipelines on July 21 by terrorists dispatched by the clerical regime supplying water to Ashraf City in Iraq, growing number of organizations and international figures as well as Iranians across the world raised their outrage and condemned the abhorrent terrorist act.

The bombing of water pipelines took place for the second time in three days cutting off water supply to thousands of PMOI members residing in Ashraf City, north of Baghdad. This happens in the 50-degree heat of summer in Iraq.

I think Bill Graham owes us an explanation of why two of his MPs are expressing support for this group so long after the group was listed.

Two MPs? Did I forget to mention Liberal MP Derek Lee?

Canada's Member of Parliament, Derek Lee in his letter addressed to the Hon. Peter MacKay, Minister of Foreign affairs in Canada wrote:

Questions have been raised about the PMOI's longer run asylum status protected by Iraq and the UNHCR and water supply which has been sabotaged twice recently.

Other members of House [of Commons] have also written to you about this and I want to indicate my support for Canadian efforts to assure status quo safety and treatment to these displaced persons.

By my count, that's two Liberal MPs to one Conservative MP. And the Conservative MP expressed his support for democracy via a megaphone to a crowd, while these two Liberal MPs are expressing support for this particular organization, by letter.

Here's the kicker. Jason Kenney says he is well aware of the status of the PMOI:

Kenney said he is well aware that the PMOI is also known as the MEK and is listed as a terrorist group. He then specifically recalled questioning the man who invited him — whose name he said he could not recall — at a meeting in Kenney's office after the parliamentary committee meeting. He asked if the man had any ties to "those radicals in the People's Mojahedin. And he laughed or denied it or something."

"I wanted to be sure there wasn't a connection," said Kenney. "I came away with the impression that there was no connection whatsoever."

He asked another staffer to double check, and the staffer said everything was fine.

So Jason Kenney knew better than to show up for a PMOI rally. If only he had known it was the PMOI at the rally. If only the PMOI had not taken steps to conceal its involvement.

But what of Tonks and Lee? They actually name PMOI is their letters demanding the government support the group!

So which is it? Denounce the PMOI like Liberal Denis Coderre wants? Or support the PMOI like Liberals Alan Tonks and Derek Lee want?

Can you imagine these guys running the country?

Are Alan Tonks and Derek Lee supporting terrorists? Of course not. But then Derek Lee is the Associate Critic for Public Safety and an expert on national security (according to the Liberal Party anyway), so he should have known about the PMOI. Jason Kenney says he did.

But the PMOI is one of several names for the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, so maybe it's not surprising people lose track of which group is which, even national security "experts". It's a feeble excuse, but it's plausible. The Liberal Party is already reeling from the fallout from the deliberate expressions of support from their own, Borys Wrzesnewskyj, for one of the most well known terrorist groups in the world today, Hezbollah. Jason Kenny did nothing wrong back in April. He says he was given bad information, either by mistake or deliberately. But if you insist that Kenney is to blame, then Alan Tonks and Derek Lee also need make amends.

Unless Bill Graham wants to lose two more Associate Critics, he ought to reconsider his position and have a talk with Denis Corderre.