by Sean Beesley
July 14, 2004
after a brief moment in the Michael Moore spotlight, Sarnia’s Mayor Mike Bradley, who had a brief spot in Bowling for Columbine, has stepped back into the light to claim another piece of the Moore phenomenon.
In response to a petition started by the Ontario Campus Conservatives demanding Elections Canada file charges against Moore for attempting to influence Canada’s recent election, Mayor Bradley, via a letter to Elections Canada, has declared he is "willing to declare Michael Moore a citizen of Sarnia, Ontario therefore making him a de-facto Canadian". While the letter was sarcastic, Bradley insists his offer is quite sincere noting that this is his response to "the right wing and their stupidity". For his part, Bradley admits to having a soft spot for Michael Moore due to Moore’s compliment declaring Bradley a "the voice of reason", which he interestingly points out "No one has ever called me that in the 20 years I've been in politics.". Despite reviews and reports pointing to Moore’s manipulation of information and facts, Bradley states that he believes in Michael Moore’s "mission", to "inform people", which has led Moore to call for "Regime change" in several countries that support the war in Iraq.
as for the charge that Moore’s comments warning Canadians that …"Bush is going to throw a party (after the Canadian election). He's going to be a happy man. (Harper) has a big pair of scissors in his hand. He wants to snip away at your social safety net. He'd like this to be the 51st State." Moore, broke Canada’s election law, even though Bradley insists it is no different than "David Frum writing speeches for Bush".
Kasra Nejatian the President of the Ontario Campus Conservatives, who started the on- line petition which is adding 500 to 600 hundred signatures a day, states that his organization will be filing a brief this week to Elections Canada. The basis of the charge is a breech of the Canada Elections act, which states that non-citizens of Canada shall not "in any way induce electors to vote or refrain from voting or vote or refrain from voting for a particular candidate". Nejatian, says his organization is "determined to see charges laid" in this "precedent setting case". In response to Bradley’s letter, Nejatian claimed Bradley was after the hype and sarcastically questioned whether Bradley was going to "offer citizenship to all other americans that break Canadian law". Nejatian further questioned whether Bradley spoke for the citizens of Sarnia and Canada in sidestepping the law with his offer to Moore, pointing to several petition signatures from Sarnia.
as for Elections Canada, there has been no comment as yet regarding the issue on any level.
Sean Beesley is the publisher and editor of Spin Killer www.spinkiller.com.
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