Its been a week of
revelations, or perhaps that should be a week of confirmations of
what we already knew, but either way the reports of the Auditor
General and Ontario Ombudsman have given several thing a little more
light of day. A number of other press releases and news reports this
week have shown that Democracy is indeed Under Fire, I am not sure
whether I should be depressed that such things are going on or glad
that the manipulation of our system of government is being brought to
light.
The following are but a
few of the reports this week, if you can read these and then say that
our democracy is not in trouble then you are either brain dead or so
blind that you should not need those rose-coloured glasses that you
are wearing!
Read them and
weep.......
Prime Minister Stephen
Harper nominated Ouimet as commissioner on June 12, 2007, saying her
"unique combination of skills and experience [would] serve her
well as she leads the implementation of the new regime for the
protection of whistleblowers."
It didn't turn out that
way, given the AG's findings, and one must question whether this was
the intent of Mr. Harper all along, to undermine the Public Sector
Integrity Commissioner position and let public sector whistleblowers
twist in the wind.
“Our voting
system creates a large risk of the most anti-democratic of all
outcomes, which is a majority government that got the minority of
public votes,” said Green Leader Elizabeth May. May was granted
the right to intervene in a case before the Quebec Court of Appeal
that argues the current electoral system in that province violates
the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“A
full year after Parliament demanded those documents, this charade
hasn’t made a single document public. It flies in the face of
the Speaker’s ruling. Instead of holding this government to
account, my opposition colleagues are helping to shield records at
the heart of this investigation,” said Defence Critic Jack
Harris. “If they couldn’t see it six months ago, surely
they can see it now: We need a public inquiry.”
http://farnwide.blogspot.com/2010/12/parliament-is-submissive.html
It will be twelve
months ago Friday that the Commons passed a motion demanding the
government release documents revealing what ministers and generals
knew about Afghanistan prisoner abuse. Since then, an ugly fight that
included the padlocking of Parliament and a celebrated ruling by
Speaker Peter Milliken fizzled into a hapless skirmish, leaving
Canadians none the wiser.
Conservative prospects
were so bleak last December that Harper prorogued Parliament —
thinly claiming the government needed time to recalibrate its agenda
— rather than disclose documents widely believed to be damning.
But oh what a difference a year makes. Today Conservatives are
climbing opinion polls, pressure for an inquiry is below zero and
Liberals along with the Bloc are mired in a glacial process that has
yet to make a single document public.
“By changing the
legal landscape without fanfare in this way, regulation 233/10
operated as a trap for those who relied on their ordinary legal
rights,” wrote Marin in his exhaustive post-mortem.....
“The effect of
the regulation … was to infringe on the freedom of expression
in ways that do not seem justifiable in a free and democratic
society,”
The
Harper government is bracing for a backlash over a border security
agreement it is negotiating with the United States, anticipating it
will spark worries about eroding sovereignty and privacy rights, a
document obtained by The Globe and Mail shows...............
The communications strategy for the perimeter security declaration –
which the document says will be unveiled in January, 2011 –
predicts one of the biggest potential critics will be the federal
privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart. That’s because the deal
is expected to increase the amount of data exchanged between law
enforcement and other government authorities in both countries.
Canada is under
pressure from U.S. officials to further comply with American security
rules which in some cases, threatens its sovereignty and the privacy
of its citizens. As a result of the war on terrorism, the U.S.
government now has more power to restrict air travel and is not only
dictating North American, but also international security measures.
Bill C-42, An Act to amend the Aeronautics Act would require Canadian airline carriers that fly over the U.S. to provide the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with passenger information. This includes name, date of birth, gender, as well as passport and itinerary details when applicable.
Bill C-42, An Act to amend the Aeronautics Act would require Canadian airline carriers that fly over the U.S. to provide the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with passenger information. This includes name, date of birth, gender, as well as passport and itinerary details when applicable.
If the concepts of
power, representation, justice, equality, citizenship and human
rights figured more prominently in public debate, then we would have
at our fingertips an analytically rigorous set of ideas that both
reveal and explain the uneven distribution of influence and resources
that undermines democracy at this time. Taking transformative action
to rebuild our political fabric would follow from each of those
starting points. Yet all six themes have lost traction relative to
the totemic markers of our time, notably competitiveness,
productivity and economic growth.
There are times when
all our politicians fail Canadians, and even the most partisan
amongst us have to admit it they’re all behaving like fools.
And the actions of the major three parties when it comes to Bill C-12
is one of those times.C-12 is a government bill that the
Conservatives have been in no big hurry to pass, and the opposition
parties have shown no particular desire to push them on.
http://bcinto.blogspot.com/2010/12/conservatives-liberals-and-ndp.html
A remote area of
Mexican desert is popularly referred to as the 'Silent Zone'.
Radio communications are said to fail there due to local magnetic
fields, and some claim that conversations cannot even be heard when
people are in the Zone. Is the Senate in danger of becoming a
similarly afflicted zone? Quite possibly, although not by
reason of natural
causes.
http://www.albertasenator.ca/hullabaloos/?article&542
http://www.albertasenator.ca/hullabaloos/?article&542
Perhaps the whole of
Canada is in a silent zone, because our political masters sure do not
seem to be hearing us, or if they are our words are left drifting in
the wind.........
1 comment:
Hi Rural,
I'm completely out of the loop these days (I'm immersed in the politics of goat-care instead), but I'm glad to see you are still doing this good work - you ROCK!! A voice of honesty out in the wilderness.....and even though I've buried my head in the straw bedding, I still appreciate what you are doing here. Have a wonderful winter!!
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