List of List's, Cuts, cuts, cuts....

Ontario Premier Mr Frord has said he is on a mission to 'reduce waste' by any means possible (except by removing himself) and he most certainly is reducing the programs and supports available to us peons that rely upon government to help for everything from health and welfare to education to environmental protection and many more 'essential services', much of which is now apparently deemed 'non essential'.

A number of organizations, journalists and individuals have been attempting to document all the cuts to services, departments, organizations and government funding in general that have taken place 'For the people' in the last year under this new dictatorial regime some of which I will list below. Many of you who are not in thrall by the conservative mindset will have seen one or more of these ever expanding lists which will now increase quietly behind shuttered legislature door until the very end of October AFTER the upcoming federal election. Those of us with a cynical bent (and that includes myself) would agree with those who have said that such a long summer break is designed to assist his buddy and fellow right wing ideologue Andrew Scheer by seemly not pissing off more folks that might otherwise make the mistake of supporting that piece of work.

I think it more probable that he simply wants to stay away from ANY accountability for his actions past, present AND future by governing from behind closed doors where we will hear of what longstanding 'services' have been removed by edict over the summer after the fact …... Ontario you have just been screwed by an expert who appears to rule by antagonism as one observer put it!

Anyway if you have not read any of The Lists here are a few but I would suggest you dont inhale unless you want to overdose and end up on the floor screaming and kicking....

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/06/07/news/heres-everything-doug-ford-government-cut-its-first-year-office

http://fopl.ca/news/changes-to-interlibrary-loan-services-in-ontario-details-and-frontline-impact-for-public-libraries-and-patrons/

http://ofl.ca/power-of-many-ford-tracker-pc-cuts-and-privatization-to-date/

http://rabble.ca/columnists/2019/04/fighting-normalization-right-wing-ideology-ford-kenney

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A Long and Very Scary List

Antonia Zerbisias is keeping a list. She's counting the things that Doug Ford is doing to make the lives of  "the people" more miserable: Here’s the list thus far. Thanks to Debra Gallant, Antonia Zerbisias and Kev Holman for it’s beginnings. This is what Doug Ford has done since July, 2018. I’ll keep adding to it. 

1. Killed Cap & Trade resulting in between $3B and $4B in lost revenue (not including lawsuits). *edited
2. Fired Privatization Officer
3. Fired Chief scientist
4. Fired Investment Officer
5. Refused assistance to asylum seekers
6. Killed legislation to reduce scalping prices
7. Killed Bill 175 updating the police service act (police oversight legislation)
8. Delayed Immunization reporting rules
9. Ends electric & hydrogen vehicle incentive program
10. Cut the budget for school repairs
11. Cut 700+ green projects ($100M to shut down 1 wind farm alone)
12. Rolled sex ed back to 1998
13. Cancelled TRC school curriculum after it had already been researched, paid for and was ready to put in place.
14. Cuts Toronto City council in half during an election campaign.
15. Cut promised 3% increase for OW & ODSP & will change definition of disability, leading to further poverty.
16. Basic Income pilot project stopped
17. Considers no more minimum wage increase (considering rolling back implemented wage increase in 2020)
18. Reduced Pharmacare availability
19. Cuts funding for guide dogs for visually impaired
20. Cuts advanced age allowance for elderly
21. Common law changes deleted
22. Cuts to funds to repair social housing
23. Cancellation of opening new overdose prevention sites
24. Buck a beer at taxpayer expense.
25. Launches “Ontario News Now”, a third world style propaganda news site payed for by taxpayers.
26. Reneges on $500,000 for after school music program for kids at risk
27. Muzzles civil servants from using words “climate change” in any social media release
28. Removal of For Profit Maximum Threshold - big box day care coming
29. Fired Howard Sapers - Correctional Reform
30. Fired Frank Iacobucci re: ring of fire consultations
31. Dismissed - high speed board
32. Sued by and lost to Tesla
33. Sued by teachers re: Sex ed
34. Sued by City of Toronto re: Bill 5 / 31
35. Streamlining rules to allow for faster passage of Bills (less debated etc.)
36. Governance deficiency results in downgrade of Hydro One credit rating (interest on debt rises)
37. Invokes s33 of the Charter for the 1st time in Ontario
38. Back to work legislation for CUPE 3903
39. Regulations re: vaping put on hold
40. Mental health funding cut by $1.34B over four years* Udpated
41. Snitch line to complain about teachers introduced
42. Indigenous and ESL language training for schools cut
43. Stops the ban on back end payment mutual funds (cheap up front a mess at the end)
44. Proposed safe injection sites put on hold (google Naloxone)
45. 2 of 4 credit rating agencies downgrade Ontario from stable to negative.
46. Disbanded Anti-Racism Directorate and all sub-committees
47. Stopped WSIB UFL 10 years ahead of recommendation of the Auditor General
48. Considers govt takeover of TTC
49. Cut WSIB payments to injured workers by 30%
50. Kills Bill C-148 which gave p/t workers the same pay as f/t, guaranteed 10 days off (2 paid) & other benefits (reducing bereavement days to TWO days)
51. Ends the Drive Clean program.
52. Paused the parents reaching out program - funding for parent councils for schools including breakfast programs and assisting with tutoring.
53. Cancels or postpones 33% increase to shelters
54. Cost approx $35M to fight the federal carbon tax
55. Cuts French Language Commissioner
56. Cancels plans for French Language University
57. Promise not kept - allows pot dispensaries within 150m of schools (oppose Libs 450 m rule)
58. Shuts down College of Trades (who had a 20M reserve fund i.e. operating at a surplus)*edited
59. Removes rent control. No rent control for new units (not previously rented)
60. Reduces oversight on the Environment
61. Will not implement tax increase on 1% ($275M in lost revenue) Cut $2.7 billion in tax revenue but only shaved $500 million off the deficit. *edited April
62. Appoints OPP Commissioner of questionable qualifications (& lied about pulling strings to put said long time friend in charge of the OPP) *investigation ongoing. Taverner has since stepped down
63. Pulled the plug on expert panel to end violence against women. * edited Feb16
64. Overruling Hydro One Board’s selection for CEO (see #87)
65. Ontario Chief Accountant resigned after she refused to sign off on Finance Minister Vic Fedeli's inflated $15B deficit. Veinot has been blocked from testifying by the PC party.
66. Cut protections for water, food, childcare safety and opened up the greenbelt to development (Greenbelt development currently on hold) *edited
67. Cut all funding for the College of Midwives (retroactively)
68. Cut funding for Indigenous Cultural Fund
69. Cut funding for Friendship Centres
70. $5M slashed from Ontario Arts Council (retroactively)
71. Limits grant for post secondary education, reduces tuition by placing cost on universities and colleges
72. Ends the gap time for repayment of student loans
73. Dissolving LHINs (Local Health Integration Networks) & replacing with no more than 5 oversight bodies) *
74. Pander to Hunters with odd reduction in permits and proposed Double Crested Cormorant cull.
75. Appoints friends to Boards with exceptional salaries
76. Bill 66 - allows municipalities to ignore environmental, heath and safety regulations
77. Consideration of ending regulations to protect endangered species to allow for development
78. Looking for additional $1B to cuts in education
79. Offered $150K to 97 year-old Hazel McCallion as advisor- who pressured Wynn for years to open the Greenbelt to development. McCallion turned position down. *edited
80. Removes electric vehicle chargers from GO station parking lots.
81. Considers removing caps on kindergarten, primary class sizes. Will not guarantee full day kindergarten in 2019. *
82. Removed “red tape” for farmers. (Details TBA) (backed down in section 10)
83. “Streamlines” Landlord Tenant Board. (more to follow)
85. Decision made to appeal the Robinson Huron Treaty claim, after feds agreed not to.
86. Promoted white supremacy and paid zero political price for it.
87. Costs HydroOne $136M in termination fees to Avista and $49M in commissions as a direct result of govt meddling in a $4.4B merger. Hydro One posted a $227M profit in it’s most recent quarter. Growth strategy now toast. see #64.
88. The “keep it off the books” (and paid for by the OPP) personalized camper van request.
89. Backed out of gender identity debate.
90. Refuses to honour funding for sexual assault centres.
91. Fired children's advocate, and closed Ontario Child Advocate’s Office. Elman found out through the media his office had been closed.
92. Scrapped funding for three satellite University campuses citing deficit (see #65)
93. Scrapped the Social Impact bonds issued by the previous government to help pay for social programs.
94. Increased their own monthly housing allowance over 20% (retroactive to July 2018) to combat inflated costs. (see #59)
95. $8M first year loss at OCS (Ontario Cannabis Store)
96. Strips protections for apprentices (1:1 ratio apprentices to skilled tradesmen) therefore placing ALL workers under risk. See injury rates in B.C.
97. Cuts in pay for family doctors working in new primary care models in Ontario (introduced to counter the shortage of docs in 2000)
99. Took credit for CAMH expansion (on Bell Help Day)
100. Docs uncovered by the minority NDP party of a total revamp of the healthcare system with a two-tier privatization system for Ontario residents (done behind closed doors). Records indicate it is already a DONE DEAL.
101. Ford calls on the OPP to investigate #100
102. OPS employee who leaked health docs is fired.
103. Calls on Fed Govt to end all tariffs on steel and aluminum.
104. As part of the OSAP changes, announced a provision making compulsory, non-academic fees optional (hurting much-needed support services to students, and more to the point student unions) with the comment "I think we all know what kind of crazy Marxist nonsense student unions get up to.” *Edited March
105. Pushes to privatize Ontario Place.
106. As per #83 cuts eviction notice time to 6 days, allow private bailiffs to remove renters.
107. Illegally cancelled the Task Force (which made reconciliation possible) that resulted from the OPSEU College Faculty strike in Fall 2017. Sued by task force.
108. Announces plan to upload TTC subways to province spring of 2019, and increase fares. (see #48)
109. Huge cuts and changes announced to Autism funding and entire program with no clear path forward.
110. ONTABA threatened by MacLeod to provide a quote of support for the govt’s new (vaguely revealed) program. Threatens with “four long years” if they don’t endorse changes. ONTABA not consulted in new program after requesting numerous times to meet with MacLeod since last fall. Parents are being asked to sign non-disclosure agreements before they can make an appointment with their local MPP
*April 2019*
111. Appoints failed PC candidate to NEW FULL-TIME position as Chair of the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) at $140,000 per year (previously a part time less than $5000/year position)
112. Significant reduction in oversight of policing
113. Shuts down The Local Planning Appeal Support Centre that helps citizens challenge big developers
114. Fires OPP Deputy Commissioner, who challenged the appointment of a Ford family friend as Commissioner & was in charge of his brother’s file.
115. Devastating changes to the education system, incl. increased class sizes, mandatory e-learning and the removal of $700M in funding from Ontario high schools. Thousands of teachers will lose their jobs.
116. Supporting systemic discrimination in ON Children Rehabilitation (https://odcoalition.com/…)
117. Redefines what determines a disability.
118. 30% cut to Legal Aid. $133M reduction to funding this year; will no longer cover refugee and immigration programs. Will be followed by an additional $31M cut in 2020.
119. Moves to semi-privatize health care in Ontario. PLANNED CUTS TO OHIP: Plan to cut OHIP-covered services by $500M.
120. April 9, Democracy Watch released the letter sent to Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dubé calling for an investigation into Ford’s Chief of Staff Dean French (and others) and former deputy minister Steve Orsini providing preferential treatment to Ford’s friend Ron Taverner, and also to Mario Di Tomasso and Chris Froggatt, which would violate the provincial government ethics law.
121. Dismantles CANCER CARE ONTARIO.
122. Cut the Indigenous Affairs budget by 50%. (more than $70M in slashed funding).
123. Moves to legalize tail-gate parties. (I have no better way to say this. Sorry.), drinking in public parks, hours from 9am, free drinks, happy hour adverts, etc.
*alcohol was referred to 60 times in the new budget. Education 25 times.*
124. Rebranding the province's visual identity including the official government logo and slogan, licence plates and drivers’ licences. Will include new commercial licence plates with slogan “Open For Business”
125. Allocates 40M to horse race industry.
126. Open up online gambling opportunities (not sure what this means exactly), push to allow betting on single-game (currently prohibited under the Federal criminal code)
127. *Make Ontario a world class Combat Sport Destination.* (I really wish I was kidding)
126. Forces gas station owners to display stickers against the carbon tax. Will impose heavy fines (10K/day) on owners failing to comply.
NOTE: In a profoundly undemocratic move, the Ford government has refused the Ontario Health Coalition entry into the budget lock up April 11, 2019 for the first time ever. The Coalition has been in the budget lock up for decades (through multiple govts). Other organizations were also refused access for the first time.



A tip of the hat to Owen at Northern Reflections for bringing this to those of us who 'do not do' facebook, I am sure the list will become MUCH longer before the Frord regime is done.

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Majority not enough for Ford.

The PCs are moving to change the legislature's rules of procedure, formally called the standing orders. These rules control such things as when bills can be introduced, when opposition parties get to put forward motions, and how much debate must take place before a bill goes to a final vote.

The rules already allow the government to cut short debate on bills and push them through to a final vote without giving the public the chance to speak at committee hearings. The PCs have used this power with most of the legislation they have proposed so far.
The proposed changes make it easier for the government to do this more quickly.

Then there is this …....

Ford said he plans to hold local governments’ feet to the fire to make sure they get projects like transit and infrastructure construction done. “We’re going to actually hold people accountable,” he said, without specifying how exactly he plans to do so.
“We’re going to hold governments accountable in over 460 towns in this province to make sure they maximize their budgets in the best way they can to respect the taxpayers.”
Apparently the municipalities must be 'accountable' to Doug Fraud as he and his newly elected minions (the majority of whom have never served in government) but he is only accountable to the electorate once every 4 years according to his calculations.

Remember that........
Nearly 60 per cent of the MPPs who took their seats at Queen's Park once the legislature resumes are newly-elected. Of the 124 ridings in Ontario, 73 were won by people who have never been an MPP that being mostly newly elected PCs.

Talk about the the rabid guide dog leading the blind masses!

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Special Forces for National 'Emergency’s'

Call me paranoid, perhaps I have been following Harpers attacks upon our democracy too long, but I fail to understand why we need to expand our 'Special Forces' (at an annual cost of $50 million) “to respond to varied, and sometimes multiple, national and international emergencies." We do have almost 2000 of these specially trained combat solders on our payroll already and we hardly need special military training to respond to 'national emergency’s' like floods, forest fires, or ice storms, not that our federal government has been quick to offer that kind of help in the past. Are our police and emergency services so underfunded that we need 'special forces' deployed within our borders/


Conservative candidate Jason Kenney says a re-elected Conservative government will expand the ranks of Canada's special forces by 35 per cent over the next seven years.
"A re-elected Conservative government will provide the Canadian Armed Forces with an expanded Special Forces capability “


Should the Conservatives get reelected or be in a minority position and ignore a vote of non confidence perhaps they will need a fast reaction force to subdue the thousands of citizens that will object to living in a police state.


The Canadian Armed Forces Special Operations Command (CANSOFCOM) is currently composed of five main units made up of just over 1,900 personnel. The government is looking to add some 665 members by 2022.
The plan would cost about $75 million over the next four years. The Conservatives would commit $10 million in 2016-17, increasing to $30 million in 2019-20. When the expansion is complete, it would cost the government about $50 million per year to maintain.


Naturaly the Minister continues to insist that we are under imminent danger of attack by those 'terrorists' who are flooding across our borders past our secure border agents with those dreaded refugee immigrants!


"Expansion of the Special Forces units will ensure that our Armed Forces are prepared to respond to the terror threat posed by groups such as the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)," Kenney said.
.....and help us keep those home built democratic zealots in line.......


Bottom line I can think of MANY better uses for 50 million a year, even within military budgets! But Harper seems determined to make war not peace with his aggressive stance on almost anything and with the current state of our military equipment perhaps he sees the best use of our military to enforce his domestic policies because he sure is not doing much to enhance our reputation overseas. An internal Foreign Affairs briefing document stamped "Secret" warns that "despite Canada's reputation as an active player on the world stage, by many measures, its relative influence has declined or is under threat." -


A venerable collection of Canada’s foreign affairs community released a series of scathing essays slamming the government’s disengagement from the ‘community of nations.’  The essays, published Sept 2014 by the World Federalist movement, a non-profit research organization that studies and advocates for global governance reforms and democratization.  The University of Ottawa’s John Trent, who edited the project, says that the Harper government’s foreign policy positions have been starkly different than any other government in Canadian history.


While Canada once contributed as many as 3,000 military personnel to peacekeeping, it currently provides only 34 – not enough to fill a school bus. While the United Nations currently (July 2014) deploys an all-time high of over 80,000 military personnel in the field, Canada has kept its numbers at historical lows since 2006.

Walter Dorn from the Canadian Military College

The reality is that the present government openly and with forethought doesn’t want to engage with the UN in any meaningful way. In fact, it’s not particularly interested in any kind of multilateral, collaborative, ‘internationalist’ engagement.

Former foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy

But then $50 million is a paltry amount compared with what he wants to spend on those useless and untested F35s.........

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Harper History, Part 9 – Omnibus budget, Anti-terrorist bill, Election call.

Summer 2014 – Aug 2nd 2015

In 2014 Green Party leader and Saanich-Gulf Islands MP Elizabeth May described the dictatorship-style Harper PMO as a “$10-million-a-year partisan operation filled with ruthless, cutthroat psychopaths.” She added that the office was manned by people “employed for the purpose of harassing scientists, bullying MPs, and muzzling civil servants.”
It should be hard for anyone who has read through this series to disagree with that assessment for as she says “The staff at the PMO have no allegiance to anything other than getting the Conservative Party re-elected, it completely offends the principles of parliamentary democracy.”
In this the last part of the Harper History series we see little change in their suppression of parliamentary debate except perhaps to be even more controlling and secretive. In advance of the Oct 2015 election we see an ever increasing expenditure of taxpayers dollars promoting various measure proposed in yet another omnibus budget and continuous party ads degenerating opposition leader Trudeau. With the budget supposedly “balanced” though a series of bookkeeping fiddles the purse strings are suddenly opened just a few days ahead of the early election call. Throughout this entire time the senate spending scandal and the attempted cover up by Harper and the PMO was constantly in the news but no attempt will be made here to cover that fiasco.

July 2014

With the Harper Regime loosing a series of rulings in the Supreme Court of Canada from their plans for the senate to prostitution laws to his nomination to the court it should be no surprise that as well as Harpers direct attack upon Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin he now has set his minions out to attack the Supreme Court in general. It would seem that the Court making rulings that follow the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is now a “problem” and that groups using the Charter to defend their rights when a new attack upon our democracy issues from the Con Oligarchy is somehow antidemocratic.

In an outburst that revealed the Conservatives true colours MP Larry Miller told the Post’s John Ivison of his growing dismay that the “courts are making laws.” “I’m all for rights and freedoms,” he said, “but the Charter complicates things.” The problem, as far as rights and freedoms are concerned, is that we have “complicated” them by writing them into law..............
“Pierre Trudeau,” he said, “did this willfully and deliberately, taking rights away from the majority to protect the minority.” “Why elect people and pay them to do something the courts are doing,” Miller grumbles.

Just to make it clear that this is not just Larry Miller spouting off but a directive from above, we have another report of the same talking points being floated from the other side of the country......

Also in July PEN Canada who represents more than 1,000 writers and supporters, including Canadian literary luminaries Margaret Atwood and Yann Martel, and presses for freedom of expression at home and abroad faced an audit. We keep being told that it’s just a bureaucratic coincidence to see so many critics of the government facing audits and revocation of their charitable status since these audits started in 2012 — from Amnesty International to Kitchener birdwatchers to the David Suzuki Foundation. But PEN Canada — an organization devoted to free expression, for heaven’s sake — the whole exercise became officially creepy.



On October the 22ns 2014 a lone gunman with no apparent ties to any terrorist organization entered the halls of parliament with malicious intent and was killed by the parliamentary security forces. This was quickly turned into a “terrorist attack” upon Canada by the Harper regime even before the gunman was fully identified.
"The objective of these attacks was to instil fear and panic in our country, as I said yesterday, Canadians will not be intimidated. Here we are, in our seats, in our chamber, in the very heart of our democracy." Stephen Harper in the House of Commons Thursday October 23^rd. This from the king of democratic destruction.
Also in October the Harper government introduced another omnibus budget bill. It brought forward the 458-page C-43 bill and said it intends to pass the legislation before the December break. It included substantial reductions in health transfers for provinces and measures to deny refugees heath care, although spending was announced for things like infrastructure or national defence it was all deferred in order to be able to announce a balanced budget before the election at which time suddenly the purse strings were loosened.


In November it was revealed that, even as various government departments reduced services and staffing levels, Public Accounts documents showed the Conservatives have held onto more than $7 billion in approved spending across a spectrum of departments. Since 2007-2008, the average amount that the government has underspent is 23 per cent of the allocated funds. Over the last three decades, the average was 2 per cent.


In December
“Stephen Harper's government is being called out for spending what the Liberals say is $548 million of taxpayers' money for partisan advertising - just prior to the 2015 election. A long ad campaign about a jobs plan that doesn't exist; feel-good ads about Canada's 150th anniversary - still two full years away; a two-month ad campaign ending this month, showcasing tax breaks that can't be accessed until March or April; and $9 million for ads denouncing Canada's wireless cellphone companies. “


In a scathing article former Conservative MP Mr Rathgeber points out that the Harper Regime continues to boast of programs that have not passed through the legislative process are are not in fact in place and does so with half truths and outright lies.

“It is shameful how a supposedly conservative government wastes tax dollars on blatant, self- serving, political advertising. These recent transgressions are in addition to the $5 Million Veterans Affairs is using to promote the laughable concept of how well Canada treats its veterans. Parliament amazingly voted an additional $21,400,000 Wednesday night for additional government advertising;” (Read the majority Con Regime voted themselves increased advertising budget)


In January The Harper regime introduced Bill C-51, the new Anti-Terrorism Act which was quickly denounced as creating a 'police state' and reducing oversight upon CISIS and doing little to actually combat domestic terrorism.
At a press briefing to introduce the bill reporters in Ottawa became surly quickly when it was discovered the government lock-up they attended on the proposed anti-terror legislation was light on information and heavy on restrictions.
A hint of how the government might handle some of its Bill C-51 critics at committee first came from Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney Tuesday. Leading testimony before the committee, he spoke out against members of the opposition and “so-called experts” who oppose the bill.
The “so-called” experts to which he referred include: former prime ministers, retired Supreme Court justices, eminent former politicians, national security legal academics and constitutional scholars and others.
Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney told CTV’s Question Period that any oversight efforts beyond the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC), which reports to Parliament on the operations of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), would be redundant.
With a few minor amendments, and having rejected 60 amendments from the Greens and dozens more for the other parties, the bill passed third reading on May 6 with the support of the Liberals with a final vote of 183-96. It later passed in the Senate on June 9 following a vote of 44-28 in favour.

Early in February 2015 Baird became the 21st senior Conservative MP to announce that they will not be seeking re-election during the 2015 federal election, scheduled for October 19. “Add in previous resignations, lost nomination bids and a death, and more than 30 Conservatives elected in Harper’s historic 2011 majority of 166 MPs are leaving or have left.”
Baird's departure from cabinet, along with the resignation of Jim Flaherty a month before his death last year, mean two of Harper's most powerful ministers will have left the prime minister's inner circle in less than a year. The election of a replacement MP was delayed until the October general election.


Also in Feb 2015 Parliamentary Budget Officer Jean-Denis Fréchette accused the Conservative government of breaching its legal obligations to hand over information about the cost of Canada’s military mission in Iraq.
A PBO report said the Department of National Defence refused all requests for specific data on Operation Impact, the mission against Islamic State militants. “Several of these refusals appear to breach DND’s legal obligations under the Parliament of Canada Act,” the report states.......
The report also notes that the government has a history of reporting incremental costs of military missions that are significantly lower than the full costs. For instance, the report states that Operation Mobile, Canada’s most recent overseas mission in Libya, had full costs that were almost six times the reported incremental costs.



In March the rush to pass the Security bill continued with debate being restricted in both the House and in Committee despite the ever increasing objections to it from both the general public and legal and constitutional experts. The hearings clearly demonstrated how dysfunctional the committee process had become under the Harper Regime.
The Canadian Bar Association objects to the planned transformation of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) into an agency that could actively disrupt terror plots. It argues the bill’s “vague and overly broad language” would capture legitimate activity, including environmental and aboriginal protests — and possibly put a chill on expressions of dissent. The SIRC committee's executive director, Michael Doucet, complained in this year's annual report that his staff had trouble getting relevant information from CSIS with it, on average, taking three years to investigate complaints against CSIS.
Late in February it was revealed that over a five-year period, Canada's national police force Mounties withheld some $10 million in funds earmarked for its National Child Exploitation Co-ordination Centre and related projects. It was later revealed that they also did not spend $97 million in 2013-14 that had earmarked for a series of key social programs, including one to fight youth unemployment and another to help the disabled. The shortfall amounted to more than five per cent of the budget for programs at Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC),
In March we found out that Minister of Public Works and Government Services Diane Finley decided to give $1 million to the Markham Centre for Skills and Independence under the Enabling Accessibility Fund  despite the fact the project failed funding criteria and included a “number of deficiencies.” Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson noted that “there were a number of interventions in relation to the proposal by the Prime Minister’s Office, two ministers, staff in Ms. Finley’s office and senior departmental officials.” The unethical interference reached the highest levels of the PMO, with Harper’s then-chief of staff Nigel Wright involved in discussions that at one point also included Harper, who told Wright to “sort it out,” according to the report.


In April instead of announcing the budget in the House of Commons, Oliver's office summoned media to the Canada Goose's factory in Toronto to announce his budget. In order to predict a balanced budget for 2015-16 they reduced government contingency funds by $2 billion and included the recent sale of the government’s remaining shares in General Motors, for another $1 billion.


Also in April having totally failed to address climate change federally The environment minister Leona Aglukkaq sent a letter just before a premiers meeting on climate change in Quebec City about their climate change efforts. Many provinces didn't react favourably to the letter, calling on the federal government to focus more on its own efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.



The Harper regime then booked $13.5 million for an all-out blitz in April and May to advertise its 2015 pre-election budget. The Canada Revenue Agency is spending $6 million on a concentrated TV bulk buy this month that includes pricey NHL playoff spots in what internal government documents describe as a continuation of an existing campaign that's been running all winter. The tax agency's $6 million in TV advertising is augmented by a $7.5 million campaign by the Finance department, all designed to promote previously announced and new targeted tax breaks. The spring ad blitz comes amid increasingly vocal opposition to the Harper government's use of taxpayer-funded advertising for clearly partisan reasons.



On June 3 2015 Liberal Senate leader Grant Mitchell confirmed that the government will shut down all debate on Bill C-51 at the Senate Chamber tomorrow. This means all amendments and the legislation as a whole will be voted on tomorrow. It passed in the Senate on June 9
Also in June The Harper regime appoints five new board members all with strong Conservative connections to the National Capital Commission ahead of a key decision on the future of a very controversial memorial to the victims of communism. “The question is, are these new appointments there simply to make sure this project is rubber stamped?” asked Ottawa Centre NDP MP Paul Dewar.
Former Conservative MP Del Mastro was sentenced to one month in jail for overspending on his 2008 election campaign; breaking his own spending limit; then filing a false campaign report. He previously sat on the House of Commons ethics committee and regularly defended the Conservative Party in question period on allegations related to the illegal robocalls sent to voters in the 2011 election.
Tory MPs voted to pass a time allocation motion on Bill C-59, a 167-page, omnibus budget implementation bill, this was the hundredth time that the Harper Conservatives have restricted debate since the start of Canada’s 41st Parliament in 2011.
The Bill contains unprecedented amendments to retroactively rewrite access to information laws, exempting all records from the defunct long-gun registry, and also any “request, complaint, investigation, application, judicial review, appeal or other proceeding under the Access to Information Act or the Privacy Act,” related to those old records. It effectively alters history to make an old government bill come into force months before it was actually passed by Parliament.


On June the 19^th parliament rose for summer and the Harper regimes minions promptly spread out across the country announcing a myriad of grants and projects designed to persuade the voting public to vote for them in the upcoming election. In one week late in July over $4 BILIONS worth of promises were made.


We could be forgiven for thinking the only thing happening on Canadian military bases over the past two weeks has been photo ops. Recently the department has sent out more than a dozen press releases and held several press conferences where Conservative MPs have announced investments in infrastructure at local bases and military facilities.


The federal government has funnelled 83 per cent of the projects under its signature infrastructure fund to Conservative-held ridings, according to an analysis by The Globe and Mail of the announcements made to date. The New Building Canada Fund was first announced in the 2013 budget, but it has only been within the past few weeks – on the eve of the federal election campaign – that specific announcements have started to flow at a steady pace.


In July despite their balanced budget promises made back in April the parliamentary budget officer says the federal Conservatives will fail to accomplish their key promise of balancing Ottawa’s books this year, instead running a $1-billion budget deficit in 2015,.
Later it was announced that Canada was officially in a recession although the PM refused to acknowledge this fact. The Conservative-dominated parliamentary finance committee voted against calling on Finance Minister Joe Oliver to testify in public about the state of Canada's finances amid a troubled economy as requested by the opposition.


In an apparent effort to keep their “war on terror” talking points before the public Minister Nicholson directed all bureaucrats working in security-related divisions to provide the minister's communications team with "...three MINA (ministerial) statements to the media regarding security in the context of terrorism each week." Since there were no such incidences the bureaucrats were unable to comply.


Late in July Stephen Harper, having not filled any vacancies for two years, announced a moratorium on further Senate appointments, blaming the problems of his previously poor choices on the provinces and suggesting that it needs to be abolished. (something that is not only all but impossible under the constitution but would leave a majority government with no checks to their power)
“This has two advantages. The first and obvious advantage is that it saves costs. The second advantage is that I think it will force the provinces, over time … to either come up with a plan for comprehensive reform or to conclude that the only way to deal with the status quo is abolition.” said Harper.



One of the last things the Harper government did before it launched the federal election was to appoint Steven Kelly to the National Energy Board, who is a consultant for Kinder Morgan. This guy was paid to convince the government to approve the expansion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline. And now he’ll be part of the team that helps to decide if his own argument was convincing.


On Aug 2 2015 Stephen Harper called the election several weeks earlier than was required by law resulting in an extended campaign period. Upon emerging from seeing the Governor General he promptly said:-
“As it is my intention to begin campaign-related activities, as is also the case for the other party leaders, it is important that these campaigns be funded by the parties themselves rather than taxpayers..........”
Given that the taxpayer reimburses 50% to 60% of all legitimate expenses incurred during an election period by political parties and their candidates and that, entirely due to measures brought in by Harper and his (un) Fair Elections Act, the upper limits to said reimbursements increases in proportion with the length of the campaign this to total and utter nonsense.




This is the final article in this series but we will attempt to publish a conclusion and index to the series in the near future. Although how to summarize 10 year of abuse in a few paragraphs makes this just a difficult as wading through the detritus has been in assembling this review of the democratic destruction by the Harper Regime.

Please Note
Parts 1 to 5 and Parts 6 to 9 are now available as two long document (19 pages - 7900 words and 27 pages - 10,230 words respectively) in chronological order and may be viewed, shared and downloaded on Google Docs. Here & Here. Due to the large number of embedded links I recommend you import them as a Docx, ODF Doc or HTML so that you may follow the references if you wish for more information on a particular issue.






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Sorry, Your Partisan Slip is Showing

We know that the House public safety committee has been 'studying' the government's anti-terror bill and that despite the long list of influential and knowledgeable people wishing to speak to the dangers of this bill to our freedoms and privacy the list of those permitted to participate was severely restricted. We also know that throughout the process the Conservative members routinely defended the bill as written and showed no interest in amendments proposed by various presenters. They even deliberately blocked the Leader of the Green Party, who later was permitted to present but not speak to, multiple amendments from presenting her views on the bill.

While Ms. May was a regular attendee of committee hearings during its study of Bill C-51, Conservative MPs blocked her every attempt to ask a single question. Although any MP has a right to sit at committee, participation is at the discretion of the Chair. During these hearings, the Chair chose to put Ms. May’s requests to the floor for unanimous consent, which was summarily denied by her Conservative colleagues.
The process by which Green MPs submit amendments to committee is one created by PMO to deprive Green MPs from‎ presenting amendments to the House of Commons at Report Stage. Ms. May used this right effectively in opposing Bill C-38 in spring 2012. Since the fall of 2013, due to identical motions passed by Conservatives in every committee, Green amendments are deemed to have been moved at committee. Ms. May and Mr. Hyer will be given time to present each amendment but are not allowed to vote.

However now with intense pressure from both the public, forem Supreme Court Judges, Academic and even former Prime Ministers and word coming down from above it seems it is suddenly OK to make some of the changes proposed by those that did get to speak.

At no point during the 18 or so hours of testimony on the bill did even one of them publicly voice concerns over any of the provisions that they will now propose be tweaked in response to witness concerns.
In fact, in at least one case — removing the word "lawful" — multiple witnesses, including those who were largely supportive of the bill, had recommended exactly such a change.
Several of those witnesses pointed out that, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Liberal government of the day had initially included a similar provision in its anti-terror package, but struck it from the text after the expert witnesses of the day expressed concerns over potential overreach...............
Witnesses who raised red flags over the implications for privacy — another criticism expected to be addressed via amendment today — were greeted with similar skepticism.
Indeed, the federal privacy commissioner didn't even make the witness list.
The Tory committee members had been unwavering in their confidence that not even a comma in the bill needed changing.

But now it seems that having been 'approved' from above a few minor changes are now to be included. How many of the dozens of other amendments proposed by non Conservative MPs will be even considered let alone adopted at the senate hearings (having been rejected in committee) remains to be seen but one thing is for sure unless approved from above it simply wont happen.

At the moment, it's not clear whether the Conservative contingent will also be advised to throw their majority support behind additional, opposition-backed amendments or vote to reject certain clauses entirely, which would also result in changes being made to the bill.
A similar parliamentary plot twist occurred last spring, when after weeks of doggedly defending every aspect of Democratic Reform Minister Pierre Poilievre's controversial bid to revamp Canada's election laws, Conservative committee members found themselves introducing amendments to address precisely the concerns they had dismissed as unfounded.
One must ask the question do ANY of these Conservative MPs have a functioning brain or are they just a satellite mouthpiece of the PMO?

The biggest threat to Canadians and Canadian Democracy is not “terrorists” but Stephen Harper and his Conservative Regimes unthinking support of his desire for absolute unlimited power and control.




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Legal Experts urge killing Police State Bill

Last week more than 100 Legal Experts wrote a letter Urging Parliament to Amend or Kill Anti-Terrorism Bill C-51
The legal experts from across Canada are urging all parliamentarians to “ensure that C-51 not be enacted in anything resembling its present form.” They argue, in an open letter published on the National Post, that the federal government’s anti-terrorism bill is a “dangerous piece of legislation” that has not been given due debate.
The text of the preamble of the open letter is reproduced below:

Dear Members of Parliament,
Please accept this collective open letter as an expression of the signatories’ deep concern that Bill C-51 (which the government is calling the Anti-terrorism Act, 2015) is a dangerous piece of legislation in terms of its potential impacts on the rule of law, on constitutionally and internationally protected rights, and on the health of Canada’s democracy.
Beyond that, we note with concern that knowledgeable analysts have made cogent arguments not only that Bill C-51 may turn out to be ineffective in countering terrorism by virtue of what is omitted from the bill, but also that Bill C-51 could actually be counter-productive in that it could easily get in the way of effective policing, intelligence-gathering and prosecutorial activity. In this respect, we wish it to be clear that we are neither “extremists” (as the Prime Minister has recently labelled the Official Opposition for its resistance to Bill C-51) nor dismissive of the real threats to Canadians’ security that government and Parliament have a duty to protect. Rather, we believe that terrorism must be countered in ways that are fully consistent with core values (that include liberty, non-discrimination, and the rule of law), that are evidence-based, and that are likely to be effective.
The scope and implications of Bill C-51 are so extensive that it cannot be, and is not, the purpose of this letter to itemize every problem with the bill. Rather, the discussion below is an effort to reflect a basic consensus over some (and only some) of the leading concerns, all the while noting that any given signatory’s degree of concern may vary item by item. Also, the absence of a given matter from this letter is not meant to suggest it is not also a concern.
We are grateful for the service to informed public debate and public education provided, since Bill C-51 was tabled, by two highly respected law professors — Craig Forcese of the University of Ottawa and Kent Roach of the University of Toronto — who, combined, have great expertise in national security law at the intersection of constitutional law, criminal law, international law and other sub-disciplines. What follows — and we limit ourselves to five points — owes much to the background papers they have penned, as well as to insights from editorials in the media and speeches in the House of Commons.

There follows a long and reasoned dissection of exactly what is wrong about the proposed legislation which may also be seen at http://www.desmog.ca/2015/02/27/more-100-legal-experts-urge-parliament-amend-or-kill-anti-terrorism-bill-c-51

Remember that, in addition to the above, several former Prime Ministers and Judges have already voiced their deep concern with this bill . Given that, it is my contention that the Harper Regime knows that this legislation crosses the line and creates the potential for abuse of Canadians rights and freedoms and the formation of a police state and is proceeding with exactly that in mind.

 



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Harper's Police State Law

Much has been written of late about the proposed C-51 'anti terror' bill and I will not attempt to dissect it here given that we already know that it will be forced through the legislative process unchanged by the Harper Regime it is somewhat a futile exercise. It is important however to still understand what it means for Canadians who may express an alternative point of view to said regime or express their opposition to certain actions by peaceful protest. One of the few politicians whose views and opinions I respect, Elizabeth May, had this to say last week on this issue:-

“I remember the events of Oct. 22. While I was in lock-down on Parliament Hill, I remember who hid in a closet and who ran toward gun fire. The guy in the closet is now planning to concentrate the powers of the state in his own hands while converting the Canadian spy agency into a secret police with virtually unlimited powers.................”

“Here is what Stephen Harper wants Canadians to think:

We are at war. We face a massive terrorist threat. We must be very, very afraid and we must not question any law brought in allegedly to fight terrorism. Anyone who raises finicky, lily-livered concerns about civil liberties is a fellow-traveller of ISIS.

Here's the truth:

We are not at war. We are at peace. (Would Harper's most trusted lieutenant and minister of foreign affairs quit if we were really at war?)

Acts of terrorism are a threat. They are criminal acts of horrific cruelty and sadism. Luring of disenfranchised, disenchanted, alienated Canadians into their barbaric crusade must be addressed, but the new law, C-51, is not primarily an anti-terrorism law. And legal experts are already pointing out it "undermines more promising avenues of addressing terrorism." (See Bill C-51 backgrounder by professors Kent Roach and Craig Forcese.)

In terms of Canada's future, the climate crisis is a much larger threat.

We must not be afraid................”

'”The vaguest of those things that undermine the security of Canada reads as follows:”"Interference with the capability of the Government of Canada in relation to intelligence, defence, border operations, public safety, the administration of justice, diplomatic or consular relations or the economic or financial stability of Canada."That list of vague activities has the same status as terrorism in launching CSIS operatives into a murky world with powers to "take measures, within or outside Canada, to reduce the threat..................."


The above are extracts from her article also published in the The Tyee where you will also find this thoughtful response from one Aaron Sheldon:-

“The surveillance state is inherently self destructive. In establishing the surveillance state a society enters a vicious loop where surveillance grows because of distrust of the populace, and in turn growing surveillance erodes the trust within the populace. Is there any greater evidence of not being trusted then having the state insist on monitoring your every activity and moment of being?

Yet without trust a society will not be resilient against the numerous unpredictable insults and injuries that erode its functioning. Trust is what allows families to grow, friendships to form, and financial transactions to occur. Most important, trust is the heart of altruism, through which is the only means that a society can truly recover from disaster, accident, calamity, and attack. In the surveillance state there is no altruism, only public performance and crafted persona.

It is no small irony that the surveillance state seeks to prevent the very misfortunes whose effects the surveillance state exacerbates. If only the consequences were not so grave, we could laugh off the monitoring of the surveillance state as the quixotic tilting of a madmen at windmills - all bravado and no accomplishment.

But then again the real goal of the surveillance state is not to protect society or the public from harm, it is to protect the fragile egos of the few elite who desperately cling to power.”

Given my questions last week as to what and whom we can trust in “government” I can only express deep concern that we can trust “government” to not use these proposed new laws for political and personal gain and ideological purposes. The biggest threat to Canada is the Harper Terrorists!

“Security agencies may feel that their present powers constrain their ability to protect Canada. But let us have an open discussion of this claim within Parliament and its committees before rushing to impose politically motivated “solutions.” Our rights as citizens are at stake.” Ed Broadbent and Roy Romanow 

Please stand with Elizabeth today -- add your voice and tell the government and opposition that our civil liberties are more important than partisan politics.

PS Apparently if you are religious and go nuts and storm parliament (or an environmentalist) you are a terrorist but if you are not religious and plan to kill many in a shopping center you are not a terrorist???
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