You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Canada’ category.
Harper and his mercurial band of autocrats are merrily stomping on the neck of democracy. Sadly, this isn’t news, but rather par for the course as dissent, reality based or not (I’m looking at you prison bloat omni-bus bill) will be passed hell or high water. What makes the Wheat Board debacle such a gut-rolling spleen bursting festival of shitacular brazenness is that our government intends to ignore what the courts have to say on the matter as well. Canada, in theory, still regards the rule of law as important as long as it follows the will of the governing party… Rule of law be damned. A spirited opposition has risen to the task of fighting Harper’s autocrats:
“The Harper government has reneged on its promise and is now breaking the law, and we intend to hold them to it and ensure that farmers’ democratic rights are respected,” board chairman Allan Oberg said Wednesday.
The board will file an application with the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench, asking it to rule Bill C-18 invalid. The bill is currently before the Senate and could become law within weeks, so the board is also asking the court for an injunction to suspend the bill until the case is heard.
The government has already suffered one legal setback over Bill C-18. A Federal Court judge ruled last week that the bill violates the Canadian Wheat Board Act, which says the government must consult farmers via a plebiscite before making major changes.
Justice Douglas Campbell made it clear, however, that his ruling was simply a statement on the government’s actions. He did not order the government to halt the bill and said he was not interfering in the legislative process.”
However, once the wheels of injustice are greased, there is little to be done to stop the nefarious deeds –
“Five government-appointed directors now in charge of the Canadian Wheat Board decided Friday morning in Winnipeg to drop the board’s bid to block legislation ending its marketing monopoly for Prairie wheat and barley.
Legislation to end the wheat board’s single-desk became law Thursday night, when Gov. Gen. David Johnston gave royal assent to Bill C-18.
With its passage, the eight farmer-elected directors of the board are gone.”
So it is done. Of course in klassy Conservative style:
“Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz was jubilant Friday morning, telling farmers gathered in Balgonie, Sask., that it’s a great day.
“This feels damn good. It’s been a long time coming,” Ritz said. “Finally you have marketing freedom.”
Farmers in the room with Ritz cheered.”
Woo, now we can enjoy the bountiful harvest of the ‘free’ market! Soon to be followed with “all hail our new corporate agricultural overlords!!”. Now it is just a matter of time as the real work of divide and conquer can begin. Without the protection of the wheat board we can look forward to even more corporate agriculture and all of the ill effects associated with strict monoculture farming practices.
When the small farmers are all gone, we’ll look back and note the passage of the legislation that marked their end. We’ll also note the cheering, for the sake of irony and the inevitable “I told you so” that is forthcoming.
Protesting the norm, the accepted, what is deemed credible will never be an easy task. Defenders of the status quo will defend their system with rationalizations that make sense to them and others in the system while dismissing outright, criticism and alternate points of view presented. This process of in-group/out-group friction is the being replayed throughout the world and across Canada. The protesters in Vancouver are being evicted after their case was heard by British Columbia’s Supreme Court.
“A man was arrested during an Occupy Vancouver march following a B.C. Supreme Court decision to grant an injunction, ordering an end to the five-week protest camp outside the city’s art gallery. Justice Anne Mackenzie granted the interim injunction sought by the city to have the campers’ tents removed from where they have been set up since Oct. 15.
MacKenzie set a 2 p.m. PT Monday deadline for the removal of the tents.
The ruling followed a three-day hearing in which city lawyers said the campers were trespassing, while lawyers for the Occupy movement invoked Charter rights of freedom of speech and assembly, and also said the camp was providing shelter for the homeless.”
The ruling in Victoria was more nuanced.
“Justice Terence Schultze said because of the protesters’ respect for the law and their recent good behaviour, police would be required to return to court on Monday for an enforcement order if any protesters refused to leave the site. The ruling comes after many protesters at the Victoria camp decided to pack up and leave voluntarily earlier this week, but protestor Anushka Radji still calls the ruling a victory ‘Not granting an injunction order goes to the fact that they recognize the peaceful nature of the assembly and criminalizing dissent, at this point, is not necessary,’ said Radji.”
Our courts are treading a fine line right now because they are making decisions that speak to our rights as citizens in our country. Dissent and protest are key parts of any democratic process and need to be safeguarded.
“The judge also said he was not allowed to consider constitutional arguments in the case and could only rule on local bylaw issues.”
So, so far no definitive constitutional judgment has been reached. The Occupy Canada movement still has life and a legal leg to stand on. Bringing attention to the disparities in our society is a herculean task, credit should be given to those who have found their voice and that have taken action to correct a growing problem in Canadian society.
Lest We Forget.
Poignant words. Powerful words. Oft recited words by people of all political stripes, but what do they mean? Do we honour them on Remembrance Day, every other day?
The words are often added to the end of the Ode of Remembrance, although they were never a part of it. As the actual Ode of Remembrance is actually quite long, we often only hear the third and fourth stanzas:
- They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
- Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
- They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
- They fell with their faces to the foe.
- They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
- Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
- At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
- We will remember them.
I remember hearing this every year during school, from grades 1 to 12, and repeating Lest We Forget back to the speaker at the end of the recital of that poem. I remember seeing the veterans of WWI and WWII dressed in their uniform and being proud of them. I was told they were great men, and I still believe they are today. The WWI veterans fought in the Great War, the war to end all wars it was called. We were very lucky to still have some among us in my small town. The WWII veterans fought what could be called a continuation of that war. But finally they won the war, again, and this could be the end of war.
I also remember the days that were not the eleventh day of the eleventh month of my childhood. I remember the first Gulf War, and what heroes we were being by rescuing Kuwait. I remember glorifying the soldier and the war. I remember trading collectible cards. I remember watching that war on television every night with my father and talking about it the next day with my classmates during recess. It was what everyone was doing.
Hardly what those who fought the war to end all wars would have wanted us to do, I would think. As just as that war may or may not have been, the glorification of that war instead of what should have been a sombre seems contrary to the spirit of remembrance.
Lest We Forget?
Of course, then there are all the wars that have been fought by the participants of WWI and WWII since then. Korea in the 50’s. Vietnam in the 60’s and 70’s. Iraq and Kosovo in the 90’s. Of course the omnipresent, hyper-militarization of the Cold War throughout that time. Then of course the Current war in Afghanistan and the second Iraq war. If you count Canada’s garrisons ready to fight during the cold war, there has not been a single decade that’s passed since the end of WWII that Canada has not been involved in the making of war.
Lest We Forgot?
Lest We Never Learned Our Lessons at All?
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is an integral part of Canadian culture. Canada’s national broadcaster helps bring the nation together and provide a common media space for Canadians to interact and share their ideas together. Canadians are so very lucky to have a public broadcaster to provide a voice of relative sanity in the cluttered media smorgasbord being offered today. I listen to CBC radio and Radio Canada almost exclusively and I am always thankful for their commercial free broadcasts.
Congratulations CBC on 75 years of public broadcasting, lets hope that we have at least 75 more to come.
Worried about Big Pharma and what corporate sponsored doctors are going to do with you? Worried your tinfoil hat is one size too small and “they” are on to you? Worried and misplacing your skepticism about science based medicine? This news article from the CBC is for you.
“A Quebec woman rushed to hospital after undergoing an overnight detoxification spa treatment involving intense sweating has died. The woman, 35, died late Friday afternoon in a Drummondville hospital, said Quebec provincial police.
She and another woman were hospitalized after undergoing a detoxification treatment at the Reine de Paix farmhouse in Durham, a small town near Drummondville.
“The treatments consisted of a process of sweating by being all wrapped in plastic with mud, and also with blankets,” said Sgt. Éloise Cossette. Both women were also encased in cardboard boxes.
They were both unconscious when emergency services arrived at the rented farmhouse early Friday morning.
This would be an easy post to write if the women had just been hospitalized for severe dehydration and loss of electrolyte balance. One woman regained consciousness, the other did not. Learning that alternative medicine is utter bullshit at the cost of your life is unacceptable.
“At least 10 people were undergoing the detox treatments at the time, which lasted for several hours, and did not include drinking water.
Police are investigating the farmhouse, which is being rented by a woman who offers an initiation to Reiki, a practice developed by a Japanese Buddhist in the 1920s.”
Ah, Detoxification, Reiki, Acupuncture, Homeopathy, the list of ways for people to be bilked out of their money grows daily. Sadly, the death count continues to grow as evidenced by this latest tragedy.
It is a truism, gullible people do stupid things. However, they should not have to pay with their lives. Alternative medicine is a fracking lie. What is worse, its a fracking lie that kills people.
Enough. Just enough.
You people have been dominating media coverage for the last week or so, you’ve had your time in the sun, now off with 
thee. Why people celebrate monarchy is beyond me. Royalty is emblematic of the rot that infested humanity for hundreds of years and does not deserve the fawning we lavish upon it now. At one time, these people believed that they were chosen by god to rule people and hold absolute power over them. Why we exalt these inbred autocrats for touring Canada baffles me.
If people gave a little more thought to history and what monarchy represents, I think the welcome the royals received would be slightly different.
Pouring beer into the 18-34 demographic and then throwing them into a crowded urban street is an unsurprising recipe for disaster. If you look at the videos out there you see people reveling in distinctly anti-social behaviour and of course acting with extreme stupidity. In this clip, you see a man trying to curb the violent behaviour of the mob. He held the mob back for awhile, but in the end gets swarmed and beaten for his efforts. Watch for yourself…
The individual took an ethical stand, and was injured because of it. I would venture that the people that hurt him do not think of themselves as bad evil people, but somewhere along the way they tucked their moral compass away and stopped listening, letting their lizard brain and the false power of the crowd dynamic take over. The mob has no feelings other than anger, malevolence and dangerous disconnect with regular social norms. When the crowd leaves, only then do you see the individual victims.
A picture from the same series that has quickly become an internet meme because of the juxtaposition of the injured woman, the police (not in this picture) and the mob in the background. What do we see in the picture? We see the results of violent group behaviour, but now we can relate to the people now because they have left the group dynamic. We can sympathize. The fact that we can loose this connection to others so quickly is intriguing and disturbing.
One aspect of the video, and even of the still shots is that amazing amount of apathy on display. How many amazingly unhelpful people do you see with their apple I-fail recording someone being beaten? It turns the stomach. The behaviour of the mob is frustrating but yet remains a provocation showing how quickly the veneer of our civilized values can slip away.
The question is, would you stand against the individuated mass if they were doing wrong? Would you intervene to stop the destruction of property? The abuse of another? Would you be part of the I-fail recording enablers? Can you even answer this question properly within the safety of your computer room?
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
Your opinions…