Recently, Canada took delivery of a new ship to add to its Pacific Fleet. This vessel was delivered from Sri Lanka by a somewhat circuitous route and arrived a while ago in Esquimalt harbour near Victoria, the base for the Pacific Fleet.
She was given an unusually grand welcome by an impressive array of vessels, which included two war ships and at least six other vessels variously from the RCMP and the Coast Guard.
Judging by the mail that Waggishness have received on this matter, some people seem to think that the price that we, the taxpayers, paid for this vessel, at $145 million, is too high. But you have to remember that the very generous sellers of the vessel from Sri Lanka happily threw nearly 500 extra crew members into the deal free of charge. Whilst it’s true that most of them don’t speak English, the government has assured the public that they will be given free language lessons once they have been settled in their free (to them) housing with a free (to them) living allowance. Once they are able to understand the difference between yes and no, they will be moved to the top of the waiting list of potential immigrants who would like to become full Canadian citizens.
“There is no question of these people being queue jumpers with regard to immigration,” the Minister said. “Let us not forget that these people have suffered a very uncomfortable three month journey to get here just to become members of one of the greatest navies in the free world.”
Ironically, the reason for Canada buying this vessel is so that we can strengthen that part of our Pacific Fleet which is responsible for defending our western coast from rogue ships which have been chartered by ‘people smugglers’ and are carrying ‘refugees’ who have paid large sums of money to be brought to our shores to claim ‘refugee status.’ She is to be fitted out with several guns and at least one bank of surface to surface missiles. It is the manning of these and other extra features which are to be added to what is at present an ordinary cargo ship, with several rust patches on its hull, that have made the government so grateful to Sri Lanka for adding the extra crew at no cost to us, apparently.
Whilst Australia, among several other countries, would simply turn these boats away once they reached their territorial waters, the Canadian government has decided to form another committee in order to look into the legal aspects of carrying out such outrageous acts.
Hot off the Waggishness press: There is another ship on its way to us. If this continues, Canada will have one of the largest, if not the most efficient, naval fleets in the world. Ed.
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