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Let us sent out a big thanks to the Ontario Swing Voters that brought us this monstrosity known as the Harper Majority Government. The Omnibus bill is the latest poke at the mouldering corpse that is Canadian Politics.
Debate? Defence of ideas? Compromise? Not happening in our House of Commons. The light at the end of the tunnel is coming though and the French NDP contingent is gnawing at the bit waiting to lead the charge to expel the current plutocrats from power.
“The French chant “2015” started in the upper reaches of the NDP backbench and soon cascaded into a common, desk-thumping chorus just before midnight Thursday in the House of Commons.
The tone from the official Opposition was oddly celebratory, given that they’d just faced 22-plus hours of consecutive spankings by a Conservative majority government voting to protect its omnibus budget bill from hundreds of amendments.
Bill C-38, the sprawling Jobs, Growth and Long-Term Prosperity Act, survived the ordeal untouched and now goes to third and final reading in the Commons on Monday.
The bill — and the literally dozens of significant statutes it comprises on everything from environmental assessments to old age security, employment insurance rules, government contracting and cross-border policing — should clear the Conservative-dominated Senate by the end of next week.”
Of course Bill C-38 was going to pass, like a javelin through the heart of Canadian Democracy. But we can save hope that things will change as the NDP back bench clearly intoned in the House of Commons.
“Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said as he emerged from the chamber with his budget bill intact.
“We have our view and our view is supported by the mandate we got from the people of Canada last year, so we’re carrying out the mandate that we have — which is about jobs and growth and economic prosperity.”
The majority of Canadians did not vote for you or your mandate Mr.Flaherty, it would be good of you to remember that. You can feel the scorn from Conservative benches, actually having to show up and vote on legislation, having to deal with this nasty messy idea that people should have input into how their country is run. The nerve of Canadians who clearly do not know their place.”
“Green party leader Elizabeth May was the author of hundreds of the substantive amendments shot down Thursday and one of about a half dozen MPs who didn’t miss a single vote. She said it was far more than “theatrics or … a waste of time.”
“This was democracy,” said May, still feisty and coherent after 22 hours of voting.
“This was parliamentarians stepping up to our obligation and our duty to Canada, to parliament, to the people who sent us here from our constituencies, to behave like parliamentarians.”
“It was a sign that democracy in Canada has a spark of life,” said May. “We found the pulse.”
This was democracy indeed. The electorate will remember how the Harper Government slapped the democratic process in the face. Prepare for more jaw dropping, commonsense defying attacks on our environment, labour and the social fabric of our society though because Harper needs to get all the damage done quickly so he can begin sucking up to the Canadian public in time for the 2015 election.
I’m with Rick on this one.
Voter turnout it at an all time low in Canada, let’s not increase that number anymore okay Steve?
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.
Meandering though the Canadian progressive blogosphere I was struck by the amount of gloom and general disgust with our current electoral system. This response from a commenter Thinking Man Neil on Dawg’s Blawg that I’m cut and pasting summarizes things quite nicely.
A resounding hurrah for the return to Feudalism.
“A very dark day for Canada. Stephen Harper’s antipathy for democracy is legendary: shutting down Parliament twice to avoid public accountability, being found in contempt of Parliament twice for refusing to release information to the House of Commons, covering the lies and scandals of his MP’s, staff, and advisers, giving his MP’s instructions to disrupt parliamentary committees to render them unworkable, violating campaign laws, eliminating funding for a program that allows ordinary Canadians to challenge unjust laws, legislation, and government policies at the Supreme Court level (now only the wealthy and corporations get heard) and equating dissent of his policies with a lack of patriotism and treason. Those are just a few I can think of off the top of my head.
Sixty years of social progress was lost last night. Harper wants to re-instate the death penalty, scrap universal health care for a for-profit system, eliminate public funding for political parties, curtail women’s rights to abortion, enact draconian “law and order” crime bills and engage in internet surveillance of the populace, give corporations and the wealthy while increasing military spending dramatically and pouring countless, precious Canadian kids into pointless meatgrinder wars just so he can thump his flabby, neocon chest.
Stephen Harper and Preston Manning — his former boss in the Reform Party — set out 25 years ago to polarize Canadian politics and destroy the centrist Liberal Party; they achieved that goal last night. Jack Layton’s 102-seat opposition NDP have been neutered even before they get through the door of the House of Commons by Harper’s overwhelming 167-seat majority. Fundamentalist evangelical Christians and Christian Dominionists and Reconstructionists who are strong Harper supporters and have been gaining considerable access and influence in the PMO and Privy Council will demand the advancement of a very socially conservative agenda, expecting the elimination of abortion rights, elimination of same-sex marriage rights and possible criminalization of gays, lesbians, and transgendereds, censorship control over media and culture and the possible re-instatement of anti-blasphemy laws, the teaching of creationism in science classes, elimination of funding for stem cell research, and the re-establishment of the preeminence of religion in society. Corporate interests will get massive tax cuts, an across the board roll back of environmental and consumer protection laws, reduced competition and acquisition regulations, elimination of worker’s rights to organize unions and collective bargaining, privatization of private and public pension plans, and increased foreign takeovers of Canadian natural resources including freshwater. And there won’t be thing one that the NDP opposition will be able to do to stop it.
Harper has worked tirelessly and ruthlessly for many years for this; he won’t allow it to be overturned by an “unwanted election” in four years. He has a tough, disciplined group of MP’s that he micro-manages with an iron fist, and his goal is to keep that in perpetuity in the form of a one-party system. His plans to eliminate the per-vote and election reimbursement public subsidies that will drastically reduce funds available for election campaigns for some parties while his party will reap enormous corporate donations. What we’ll be left with in the end is a situation akin to Saddam-era Iraq: token elections and token opposition with only one possible outcome.
My Canada, the Canada of tolerance, openness, freedom, and respect of and love for democracy, died last night. It’s been handed over to a group that values bigotry, misogyny, power, fear and ignorance over the better aspirations of our species.
I’m hoping it is not all as bad as Neil prognosticates. The idea though that we have to count on Harper to moderate his policies in order to be reelected in four years seems to be a very weak check on the sort of destructive policies he champions. It is May 3, 2011 – We’ll revisit this post and see where we are in a couple of months.
I’m curious as to the lack of story around the little issue of our own government not following the rules of Canadian Democracy. I guess Steve was not happy with just shutting parliament down, but he wanted his way with how our democracy is run.
Cute. I recommend not voting for him and his merry band of fascists.
And I thought the Pope had the market on evil empire Star Wars references. :)
bleatmop
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