Undemocratic Democratic Reform

Are changes to an electoral system in a democracy valid if they are brought in by a less than democratic process, are they in fact valid if the very 'independent' body charged with overseeing said electoral system is excluded from the process? Are they valid if recommendations from said body are ignored, debate within our parliamentary system on such measures is curtailed, concerns by parliamentarians and democracy experts across a broad range of political and non partisan stripes fall upon deaf ears? Are they in fact actually antidemocratic if they are not generally accepted by those whos right to select their government representative in a free and unbiased system is impacted?


Irregardless of the content of the (Un) Fair Elections Act the process to make such changes MUST be seen to be an open and unbiased process with all views carefully taken into account and partisan issues set aside if it has any chance of being anything more than a cynical attempt by a regime already proven to have little regard for democracy, either at the election booth or withing parliament, to further diminish our ability to elect a government that reflect our wishes.


Electoral or parliamentary reform by decree is NOT democratic reform, it is the first step towards dictatorship. If the population does not trust the electoral process or is prevented from participating the our democracy is on the very edge of that which Mr Harper is so busy condemning in Crimea.


Thats the process, and that is troubling enough, but the content is almost universally condemned as unacceptable. Not only that but it is so far reaching and contains so many changes to the electoral process, the funding thereof and Elections Canada’s ability to oversee the election process that few, if any, really know what the full impact of passing this bill would mean. Here are SOME of the more well known issues raised thus far:-


Some of biggest problems identified by Elections Canada:
– The Fair Elections Act allows the incumbent party in each riding to appoint the central poll supervisors, a key job at each polling place. This may give rise to the impression that their decisions are partisan, whether they are or not. Elections Canada wants to appoint central poll supervisors and other election officials rather than letting parties put their people in.
– The act will stop the use of voter information cards (VICs) as identification at the polls. Elections Canada says for Canadians who don’t have ID showing their address — including many aboriginals, students and seniors — the VICs provided a simple way to show where they live.
– The act will require Elections Canada to give “bingo cards” — lists of who have voted — to the political parties after each election, which Elections Canada warns has privacy implications. Currently, officials give the cards to party scrutineers to assist in their get-out-the-vote effort but it’s not possible for parties to assemble a national database of who has voted.
– The new robocall registry that the act will require be established will not require records to be kept of what numbers were called, “which is key information for investigations,” according to Elections Canada.
– The act provides an exemption from election spending limits for money spent on telephone fundraising from former donors, which Elections Canada warns sets up a big loophole that political parties can exploit, since the agency will have no way of knowing if the parties’ reporting is accurate.
– The act allows for compliance audits of the parties’ books, but does not allow Elections Canada to produce documents proving that its financial statements are on the up and  up.
– The act requires that commissioner, who supervises investigations, keep confidential information about investigations. This means that nobody will have the authority to report to Canadians on election crime, even to reassure voters that fraud did not take place.
– The act does not do several things Elections Canada had requested — extend privacy protection to political parties, and provide investigators with the power to compel testimony from witnesses to election crime.

Other issues

Electoral Education
The Chief Electoral office may no longer be given the mandate to promote and educate our electoral process to Canadians.
Hiring
The hiring of staff on the part of the Chief Electoral Officer will have to go through the treasury board.
Campaign Funding
The amount election candidates would be able donate to their own campaign (to $5,000 from $1,200), and the amount party leadership candidates would be able to donate to their own race (to $25,000 from $1,200).”
It would also allow parties to exclude money spent during campaigns to solicit funds from donors who have contributed $20 or more to them at any point over the previous five years.
Failure to consult


The proposed legislation was prepared without any consultation with our Chief Electoral Officer and in fact ignore sever of his earlier recommendations. Debate has already been limited in the House and proposals to consult with Canadians across the country have been rejected. Several observers including some influential Conservatives and former Leaders have said that electoral reform must have broad support in order to be legitimate.


Interpretation of rules
16.1 (1) The Chief Electoral Officer shall,in accordance with this section, issue guidelines
and interpretation notes on the application of this Act to registered parties, etc etc
(8) The guidelines and interpretation notes are issued for information purposes only. They are not binding on registered parties, etc etc


Some of the Spin
In an attempt to defuse the impact of facts, Pierre Poilievre went on CPAC to "correct the explicit factual error in the CEO's testimony" and again read the sentence from the report that he's quoted so many times he probably hears it in his sleep.  "The Supreme Court made it clear that such errors in other circumstances could contribute to a court overturning an election." 

Now it seems that Mr Neufeld himself, would like to correct Mr. Polilievre's deliberate SELECTIVE quoting.  According to Neufeld at no point in his report did he suggest that any of the irregulatities sited in his report were evidence of fraud. The author of a report cited repeatedly to justify cracking down on potential voter fraud says the Harper government is misrepresenting his report and ignoring his recommendations. Indeed, Harry Neufeld says there's not a shred of evidence that there have been more than "a handful" of cases of deliberate voter fraud in either federal or provincial elections.

His recommendations (never quoted by Poilievre )

• voter information cards should be more widely allowed as valid pieces of i.d.
  
• vouching process and paperwork should be simplified
  
• elections officials better trained
  

And finally some of the reaction by those far more qualified to speak to the matter than I:-


Ed Broadbent
Past governments have avoided turning democratic process into a tool for one party’s advantage. Changes in electoral processes were always based on all-party consensus.
That Harper derides such all-party consensus is, sadly, no surprise. That his robotic backbench will unquestioningly obey is not news either. Except now, the victims of his disregard for debate aren’t only the people we elect. It’s those doing the electing as well.



A letter signed by over 150 professors at Canadian universities who teach and conduct research on the principles and practices of constitutional democracies, including 15 past presidents of the Canadian Political Science Association.
We, the undersigned — professors at Canadian universities who study the principles and institutions of constitutional democracy — believe that the Fair Elections Act (Bill C-23), if passed, would damage the institution at the heart of our country’s democracy: voting in federal elections.
We urge the Government to heed calls for wider consultation in vetting this Bill. While we agree that our electoral system needs some reforms, this Bill contains proposals that would seriously damage the fairness and transparency of federal elections and diminish Canadians’ political participation.
Beyond our specific concerns about the Bill’s provisions (see below), we are alarmed at the lack of due process in drafting the Bill and in rushing it through Parliament. We see no justification for introducing legislation of such pivotal importance to our democracy without significant consultation with Elections Canada, opposition parties, and the public at large.



Preston Manning
Manning said he wants to see the federal government's Fair Elections Act legislation amended to "strengthen, rather than reducing, the role of Elections Canada and the chief electoral officer with respect to promotional and educational activities designed to increase voter participation in Canada’s elections."



We cannot let the Conservative regime continue with their destruction of our parliamentary democracy by allowing them to force through legislation that disenfranchises some segments of our society, enables the rich to have an increased influence upon election activities and totally guts the ability of Elections Canada to encourage citizens to participate in this fundamental democratic process.




Support Democracy - Recommend this Post at Progressive Bloggers

Harpers Orwellian Regime

Arising from George Orwells novel Nineteen Eighty-Four published in 1949 the adjective Orwellian describes a totalitarian dystopia characterised by government control and subjugation of the people. Orwell's invented language, Newspeak, satirises hypocrisy and evasion by the state: for example,the Ministry of Truth oversees propaganda and historical revisionism. When writing this Orwell believed that British democracy as it existed before 1939 would not survive the war, the question being "Would it end via Fascist coup d'état (from above) or via Socialist revolution (from below). Many Canadians are starting to wonder the same here and now, we hope that like Orwell we will be proved wrong however some of the parallels between what is happening now in Canada under the Harper Regime and the Regime as depicted in his novel are startling.


Lets start with some of the Orwellian language coming from these spin artists;


There is Bill C-10, An Act to Enact the Justice for Victims of Terrorism, which hiked penalties for pot possession and funded more prison construction;
The Protect Children from Internet Predators Act, which forces internet service providers to hand over user names to police without a warrant;
The Navigable Waters Protection Act which removed protection from thousands of rivers and exempted certain projects from such protection on those remaining.
The Citizen’s Arrest and Self-Defence Act which opens the door to a potentially greater role for private security forces instead of the police.


And more recently The Fair Elections Act which, among other things, seeks to make it 'fair' for the more affluent partys to spend more money without restrictions in order to brainwash the electorate to their point of view.


Even the Budget bill had little to do with budgetary considerations but more to do with ideology as Allen Greig points out.
It announced that environmental assessments were to be “streamlined” and that the final arbitration power of independent regulators was to be curtailed and possibly overridden by so-called “accountable” elected officials. Given the priority this government places on economic, and especially resource development, this was not necessarily unpredictable. These amendments was bundled in with 68 other laws into one Budget Bill, so that – using the power of majority government – no single item could be opposed or revoked.


When then the specific cuts started to roll out, an alarming trend began to take shape.

• At Stats Canada – ½ (not 6%, but 50%) of employees were warned that their jobs were at risk.
  
• 20% of the workforce at the Library and Archives of Canada were put on notice.
  
• CBC was told that it could live with a 10% reduction in their budgetary allocation.
  
• 30% of the operating budget of Parks Canada was cut, eliminating 638 positions; 70% of whom would be scientists and social scientists.
  
• The National Roundtable on the Environment, the First Nations Statistical Institute, the National Council on Welfare and the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Science were cut.
  
• The Experimental Lakes Area was shut down. The northernmost lab in Eureka, Nunavut awaits the same fate.
  
• The unit in charge of monitoring emissions from power plants, furnaces, boiler and other sources is to be abolished.
  
• And against the advice of 625 fisheries scientists and four former federal Fisheries Ministers – saying it is scientifically impossible to do — regulatory oversight of the fisheries was limited to stock that are of “human value”.
  

• On the other side of the ledger however, the Canada Revenue Agency received an $8 million increase in its budget so that it had more resources available to investigate the political activity of not-for-profit and charitable organizations.
  

(Please note that the above from Mr Greig has been condensed somewhat please see the original article for the full text)



I believe that Harper and his cabal do think that they are doing the right thing and that the end justifies the means but that makes it even scarier than if they were deliberately trying to destroy our democracy.

“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”
― George Orwell in 1984

We now have the PMO issuing weekly propaganda videos and our MSM reduced to only asking 'approved' questions on the rare occasions that they have access to our PM.

“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.”
― George Orwell

Those working within government have been silenced with threats of dismissal or other sanctions and are now being asked to sign documents ensuring their silence even after they leave or are dismissed.

“Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
― George Orwell

Canadian Museum of Civilization has been rebranded the Canadian Museum of History and is just one element in the Conservatives’ wider strategy for changing the way Canadians perceive their past, they have launched a 'review' of Canadian history. Or more correctly a review of what history government institutions will be funded to reveal to us!

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
― George Orwell

We have seen that the Harper Regime will do anything to get and retain power, prorogue parliament to avoid a confidence vote, ignore electoral laws governing robocalls and funding limits, cut off per vote funding that levels the playing field slightly for smaller and developing partys.

“We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.”
― George Orwell in 1984

Various organizations and individuals who have spoken out against some of the actions of the Harper Regime, particularly those who are concerned with the future of our natural environment have been labelled 'enemies of the state'.

“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
― George Orwell

In short we are being told black is white, up is down, the oil sands will be Canada's saviour, the Cons are governing democratically and the sun shines out of Harpers arse. All of these things are equally true.

Perhaps given the closing of research librarys and the destruction of many of the books and papers therein we should be rereading Ray Bradburys 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451 . The novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and "firemen" burn any that are found. The people in this society do not read books, enjoy nature, spend time by themselves, think independently, or have meaningful conversations. Instead, they drive very fast, watch excessive amounts of television on wall-size sets, and listen to the radio on “Seashell Radio” sets attached to their ears.
In a 1956 radio interview,Bradbury stated that he wrote Fahrenheit 451 because of his concerns at the time about censorship and the threat of book burning in the United States.

I will leave you with this final thought from George Orwell

“To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.”
― George Orwell

Support Democracy - Recommend this Post at Progressive Bloggers

Five Years of Frustration

Five years ago this week I started Democracy Under Fire due to concern of the way in which the new Conservative Government was ignoring democratic and parliamentary conventions. This was just after their reelection as a result of the lowest voter turnout in Canadian electoral history, with only 22% of eligible Canadian voters casting a vote and prior to their most glaring abuse, which being the proroguing of parliament to avoid a vote of non confidence in Sept of 2009. During the the first few months I took the time to examine and more fully understand our system as it was intended to work and I encourage you to read a few of those early posts, more may be found via the archive listings in the side bar. You will see that the tone of the posts have changed considerably since those days, as has the way in which our parliament operates. I now now refer to those who lied and cheated themselves to power as 'The Harper Regime' believing that to refer to them as a government is an insult to all those who work diligently for us in the various departments to lump them in with this bunch of oligarchs. I am increasing critical of almost everything that said regime does, who can not be when almost every thing they do diminishes our democracy, our parliamentary conventions, our access to reliable information political, social, fiscal and scientific, and our very sovereignty.


That over those 5 years there are still a large number of Canadians that still cannot see that when a regime will do ANYTHING to suppress information that may reflect badly upon them it is a race to the bottom, whos leader will not answer unscripted questions from the press on the rare occasions when the are given access to our 'dear leader', that their very right to select their parliamentary representatives from a position of knowledge is compromised. That the institutions necessary to provide services, be it to decision makers or directly to Canadian taxpayers, built up over many years once shut down or defunded will take years to rebuild if ever, that ruling by ideology and fiat has no place in a democracy. That withholding information and blocking enquiries regarding election fraud and financing and other actions contrary to our laws and rules is in itself a direct attack upon democracy. If you have done nothing wrong and support democracy then you would do everything in your power to get to the bottom of the allegations, but if you have cheated and lied to the public and to your fellow parliamentarians simply to get or retain power then you will, as we have seen, continue to do everything you can to suppress the truth.


This then is in my view where we sit now, I don’t really blame those who are taken in by the daily spin issued from the PMO after all when you are more worried about if they have a job next week, or for so many folk if they even have food on the table, its hard to worry about whether your government is being honest with you. And when the extent of the information you get is a 30 second item (often blindly parroted from the regimes 'news' release) on the evening news it becomes impossible to make informed choices. There is the rub, information is power and the Harper regime is increasingly controlling the information you receive from or about our 'government'.


As you can see for the most part no I longer search for or post information on how things should be but am so concerned about the never ending destruction of our democracy that I am reduced to ranting about those that I am fearful are leading us to becoming a third world oligarchy. Where before too long if you are fortunate enough to be allowed to vote, you get to cast your vote for only those who have been approved by Herr Harper and his minions and are told that all others are 'terrorists' or 'enemies of Canada'.


Wake up folks before its too late.




Support Democracy - Recommend this Post at Progressive Bloggers