Keith Henson Needs Help

[Steve Thompson]

"R. A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com> wrote:

Keith Henson Needs Help (MLP)
By Baldrson
Wed Sep 15th, 2004 at 07:42:14 AM EST

[snip]
Anyway, back to the question: Why should you care?

Maybe you don't like Scientology.

Maybe you like Keith.

Maybe you just like to mess with the California government.

Whatever, Keith Henson is asking for help and he quite probably actually
needs it.

This is interesting.  I haven't had the time to follow much of Mr. Henson's case; either the refugee claim, or the subsequent deportation proceedings.  I do recall that he was incarcerated at the Metro West Detention Center while some of his legal maneouvers were being heard in Oakville, and that won't have been very pleasant at all.

People who belong to The Church of Scientology seem to comprise a rather nasty group, and I am not surprised to hear that there are people who fear their reach and influence.  Of course, the US justice system has a number of problems that have been well documented in recent years, and is obviously no walk in the park for anyone who runs afoul of it for whatever reason.  But given that, I can't imagine the naoveti of thought that would lead someone to believe that Canada (and its judicial system) is so much better as to make it worthy as a haven for contemporary US dissidents.

The Church of Scientology is obviously somewhat active here, at least as  far as I can detect; as are other [religious] special-interest groups. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, officials of government here seem only too willing to allow all manner of tomfoolery and hi-jinks to play out alongside the official processes of law.  Tangentially, the Globe and Mail recently printed an article that used the phrase "asymetrical government" to seemingly describe the recent change of character to the practises of federal governance in Canada.  I can't imagine that bodes well considering the term's likely relation to 'asymetric warfare', but then perhaps some bored PSYOPS expert is merely having a little fun with Globe readers.

However, notwithstanding the spectre of improved 'asymmetric' Canadian government, I am not too intelligent in these matters and so there could be some very significant differences up here that makes it an attractive destination for refugees fleeing your own very Happy Fun Government.  It is a truism to say that people sometimes do the strangest things and that their motives are often extremely obscure, and so I am not surprised to find myself mystified on occasion.  Why, I don't believe I even really appreciating the subtleties of John Gilmore's current civil action against the USG over airline security screening procedures.  Politics really is quite complex these days for the nonexpert.

If Keith had asked me before he decided to set out for Canada, I probably would have advised him then that this is no utopia of jurisprudence and fair play.  Sure, if one has enough (but not too much) money to spare, this can be a nice place, but I am told that the same holds true for Chile.  There are tiers of access to public services and no exemplary history available to hold up as evidence to support the idea of Canada as much of a sanctuary from the excesses of certain malign foreign government actors.  And, sure, I have not travelled about Canada extensively so I can personally only attest to the existence of malign domestic government and non-government actors in the Greater Metropolitan Toronto area.  Other provinces could be much, much better than Southern Ontario.

Of course my cynicism and discontent could be mostly a product of, and reaction to being more or less unilaterally hung out to dry by my friends, acquaintances, and the officials of my immediate experience in recent years.  (Incidentally, I can't say that I haven't learned some important bits of data from pseudonymous benefactors, but the fact of pseudonymity and indirection in such instances is really not very comforting.  [shit]  And furthermore, study, induction and deduction, as well as a whole bunch of testing comprise _the_ major contributors to what little peace of mind I posses if bound literature is excepted.  Help is clearly a commodity in short supply around here.)

Anyhow, Keith's failed refugee claim is clearly significant.  Considering my calendar at the moment I don't think there's much that I can do to help, unfortunately.  I will watch, though, and I'll be be interested to see exactly how the final moves play out in his case.

Regards,

Steve

 







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