Jonathan Kaur

Jonathan Kaur
Senator for Verdesia-3
Incumbent
Assumed office 22 September 2016
Preceded by	Elat Cosidó
Personal details
Born	(1972-01-06) January 6, 1972 Wescastle, Verdesia, Zamastan
Political party	Blue Conservative Party
Spouse	Marta Rodríguez (m. 2002)
Children	4
Alma mater	University of Verdesia University of Tofino

Jonathan Kaur (born January 6th, 1972) is a Zamastanian politician and businessman serving as the Senator for Verdesia's 3rd district since 2016. Born in Wescastle, Kaur was raised in an affluent family in which his father was the executive of a coal mining conglomerate, Kaur and Desden Company. After attending both the University of Verdesia and the University of Tofino, Kaur took over the company as executive after his father died. Kaur and Desden was sued by the federal government in 2003 for a deadly mine collapse. In 2006, Kaur entered local politics in his home province and became the mayor of Wescastle, and ran an unsuccessful campaign for Governor in 2014. He successfully ran for senate in 2016, and has since chaired numerous committees including the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. In the senate, he has run two unsuccessful bids to become the leader of his caucus, losing to Bret Day in 2018, and to Kendrick Benton in 2022.

Despite having won his senatorial district by wide margins since 2016, Kaur is widely unpopular at the national level. He is consistently ranked among the wealthiest politicians in the country, and has faced criticism for his connections to lobbyists, endorsements of far-right groups, and controversial views on abortion, climate change, immigration, and gun control.

Business career

Mine collapse

In February 2003, 52 miners were trapped at the Dessland Mine in Redeemer’s Land, which was co-owned and operated by Kaur and Desden subsidiary Redeem Energy. Although 36 miners were saved, two rescue workers died attempting to reach the miners, and a series of boreholes found that the remaining miners were unlikely to have survived. The miners were declared dead, and their bodies were never recovered. Prior to the collapse, the Dessland Mine had received 64 violations and was fined ℤ12,000. Kaur claimed that the mine collapse was triggered by a natural earthquake and that the practice of retreat mining was not responsible. Responding to reports of retreat mining, Kaur said: "I wish you would take the word retreat mining out of your vocabulary. Those were words invented by lackies for the Unions, who would like to organize this coal mine."

Seismologists and government officials disputed this claim, and said the mine collapse was the cause of a coal mine bump that was caused by the mine's use of retreat mining. Adam Baener, the government's top mine safety official, said: "It was not—and I repeat, it was not—a natural occurring earthquake." An analysis by seismologists at the University of Alanis found that the seismic event was "consistent with an underground collapse". Researchers at the University of Tofino also stated that the tremor was not triggered by an earthquake.

On July 24, 2003, the government's Mine Safety and Health Administration announced its highest penalty for coal mine safety violations, ℤ5.85 million, for the collapse. The government fined Kaur and Desden ℤ1.34 million "for violations that directly contributed to the deaths of 16 miners and 2 rescue workers last year", plus nearly ℤ300,000 for other violations. The government also levied a ℤ220,000 fine against a mining consultant, Pulle Associates, "for faulty analysis of the mine's design". Jonathan Kaur was criticized for his actions during the rescue attempt. The MSHA cited his volatile behavior, especially at daily briefings for family members. MSHA reported that he "frequently became very irate and would start yelling."

Political positions

Kaur has been classified as a "hard-core conservative" by the Tofino Times. Many of his fellow conservative lawmakers in the Senate have spoken negatively about Kaur, with Burhan Swanson saying "he makes us look like liberals", and then-Speaker Foley Sakzi saying "where the party is about traditional conservative and libertarian values, he's conservative to a fault. I wouldn't want to invite him to dinner." Then-Congresswoman Sabine Armitage once said of Kaur in an interview with Aiden Reventon; "Senator Kaur harbors dangerous nationalist sentiment that I don't consider to be good placement within the BCP."

Kaur is a climate change denier, having repeatedly stated his belief that climate change is not man-made and global warming is non-existant. He remains opposed to increased environmental regulation.

Kaur has advocated for the abolishment of ZamCare, and has proposed prohibiting federal funds from being used to implement, administer, enforce, or carry out programs with respect to digital health passes, and for other purposes.

Kaur has been labeled one of the most pro-gun members to have ever served in the national legislature. Kaur is a lifetime member of the Association of Gun Carriers (AGC), and has an A+ rating from it. When Kaur served as the mayor of Wescastle, he led an unsuccessful effort to allow Verdesians with concealed-weapons permits to carry those weapons openly in public. In lobbying for the bill, he said that the open carry of weapons was a right "granted not by government but by God." In the senate, he voted against the bipartisan 2019 Semi-Automatic Rifle Ban, and has since introduced so-far failed amendments to strip constitutional restrictions on gun ownership.

Kaur opposes abortion in all circumstances, including rape, incest, and concern for life of the mother. Though Zamastan has a national ban on abortions at the third trimester, Kaur has endorsed expanding it to an "absolute and full ban". In August 2019, he gave a speech at a student summit gathering in Fougere, Cayenne, in which he said that overweight or unattractive women were unlikely to become pregnant and mocked them for supporting abortion rights, saying, "They're like 5'2", 350 pounds, and they're like, 'Give me my abortions or I'll get up and march and protest.'" An attending teenager posted the clip on Owler mocking Kaur, who responded with a photo of her and implied his comments had touched a nerve; she used the incident to raise over ℤ2 million for abortion funds.

Kaur has been criticized for his views on immigration, saying that while "legal immigration is neccesary for the growth of the nation," he has endorsed "restricting immigration from non-desirable nations". During his 2018 reelection campaign for senate, he said that illegal immigrants were "sucking us dry." He faced national criticism in June 2021 for saying that "Apatonia and other Adulan countries are covered by sheet metal and garbage" and in "disgusting" condition.

Personal life

Kaur met his wife at the University of Verdesia, a foreign exchange student from East Chanchajilla named Marta Rodríguez. They married in 1994. The couple has four children.