I wish I could present you with some
uplifting and exciting presents on the democracy front at this time
of year but I fear it is not to be, there may be hidden amongst the
lumps of coal and crushed remains of our parliamentary democracy a
few items that you may be able to salvage but I am sad to say that
they are few and far between.
Here then are a few of the things that
fill your stocking ready for you to rummage through them.....
At the top is a book, but not one
that gives one a warm and fuzzy feeling. As
reviewed by Frances Russell at ipolotics and written by
political scientists Peter Aucoin, Mark D. Jarvis and Lori Turnbull
it looks at the state of our democracy under the Harper regime. Here
are some extracts from Russels review that need no further comment.
They define electoral democracy as “a
system in which the electorate decides who forms the government and
the prime minister then governs as a virtual autocrat until the next
election … The concentration of powers … cannot be permitted
to remain in the hands of a single individual who is able to
undermine democratic governance at his or her will.”
Harper’s Blitzkreig on parliamentary
democracy began in 2008. “Harper, in less than two years, made
three unilateral decisions showing clearly how a Canadian prime
minister not only can exercise unconstrained power at whim to
prorogue and dissolve Parliament but also to declare on what he would
accept or not accept as a vote of confidence,” the authors write.
“As with the election call in 2008,
there is no evidence that the prime minister was much concerned about
public opinion over his abuse of prorogation. If anything, it appears
that having successfully employed the first prorogation as an
effective partisan tool to avoid defeat in the House, Conservative
strategists seized on it as a handy tool for further use.”
University of Toronto professor
emeritus of politics Peter Russell describes Canadian democracy as
“very weak.” Canada now has what he calls “presidential prime
ministerial parliamentary government,” he said, adding that unless
Canadians do something soon to save their parliamentary democracy,
“they will have presidential government, period.” The leader now
controls caucus and cabinet and runs the show, he said. It’s
reached a point where the prime minister’s political staff has more
power than the cabinet. “We have a 35-year-old ‘communicator’
telling a veteran 55-year-old cabinet minister when to stand up and
when to sit down,” Russell said.
The book does however propose a
solution. Canada should follow the lead of its sister Commonwealth
countries Britain, Australia and New Zealand and codify the
principles of parliamentary democracy to ensure the players —
voters and politicians — understand the playbook and stay within
the rules.
“The other systems have rules about
prorogation and dissolution, especially dissolution,” said Turnbull
whose book proposes some specific solutions..
The next item to unwrap is wrapped
in the Star and contains the news from the Canadian
Journalists for Free Expression that the result
of a recent study by the Centre for Law and Democracy that ranked the
strength and effectiveness of global access to information laws that
of 93 countries ranked Canada
stands at 55. This is a drop from a year ago
when Canada was ranked at an embarrassing 40th in the effectiveness
of laws intended to guarantee that all Canadians — journalists and
citizens — have a right to public government information that is
not supposed to be kept secret.
CJFE points out, quite rightly, that access to public information is a critical component of our right to freedom to expression. It’s how we hold governments to account. The organization has now launched a public campaign to convince Canadians that “what you don’t know can hurt you.” They are seeking public input through a brief survey on its website to gather your views on Canada’s access to information system. That information will be included in the CJFE’s submission to a current review of Canada’s 30-year-old Access to Information Act.
“our access to information system is
mired by delays, extensions, exceptions and exemptions — and, on
occasion, by blatant political interference, the destruction of
documents and intentional failure to create records.”
.........Silencing free expression, blocking citizens’ right to
information is routine operating procedure in repressive regimes.
Hiding down in the bottom we have
this lump of coal donated
by Canadian Dimensions.....
U.S. corporations have launched an
alarming new offensive against Canadian health and environmental
policies under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Three
U.S. firms recently announced plans to use the “trade” pact to
seek nearly one billion taxpayer dollars in private, NAFTA-created
tribunals as compensation for Canadian policies on fracking, wind
energy, and medicine patents.
Of the three corporate threats, perhaps most worrisome is the
notice filed by U.S.-based pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, which
became public this week. It marks the first
attempt by a patent-holding pharmaceutical corporation to use the
investment provisions in NAFTA (or any other U.S. FTA) as a tool to
push for greater monopoly patent protections, which elevate the cost
of medicines.
But how can a foreign corporation directly demand taxpayer compensation from a sovereign government over a democratically-determined policy? Meet the “investor-state” system. Written into NAFTA, this system uniquely empowers foreign corporations to skirt domestic laws and courts and directly challenge a government’s public interest policies.
The article goes on the give details of
these attacks upon our right to conduct our own affairs as we see fit
but more troubling is that Harper
is as I write considering a similar 'agreement' with China!
There are a couple of more promising
things yet to be fully unwrapped the newest of which is the
Idle No More Rallys across Canada, they have become much more
than just about First Nations but more about the way the Harper
Regime regards all of its citizens both natives and settlers. Another present fighting for our
attention is the Lead Now initiative which is also greatly
concerned with the FIPA China deal in addition to their other
great work in holding Harpers feet to the Yule Log.....
I do wish you all A Merry Christmas
and a relaxing and special time with family and friends and hope that
next year I will be able to find you some better presents from the
democracy isle.
1 comment:
An excellent review of our current situation. May the New Year change it for the better.
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