Do Not Be Muzzled.

Do not be muzzled Oct 19th, get out and have your say on who you wish to represent you in parliament, bearing in mind that many of the promises are just that and may either be a long time coming or reduced or eliminated once in power. Particularly should the winning party get a majority!


I believe that the best indication of future behaviour is past behaviour hence my listing of the Conservatives attacks upon our democracy over the past 10 years. Another indication is more subtle and that is how open and accountable (remember that phrase) those vieing for power have been. In that regard here are a few recent indications of how the Conservatives deal with requests for information fundamental to our evaluating their performance.


The Canadian Press filed the access to information request (regarding the Duffy affair) to the Privy Council Office (PCO), the secretariat of the federal cabinet, which is headed by Harper, in August, 2013. But the PCO withheld almost all of the records requested.
“The PCO identified 28 pages of responsive records, but withheld 27 of those pages, releasing just two emails in which its staff discussed similar access-to-information requests,” The Canadian Press reported Tuesday (September 15, 2015) . “PCO claimed every single word on every single one of those 27 pages might jeopardize solicitor-client privilege, or reveal personal information, or third-party information, or details on secret deliberations.”
The Canadian Press lodged a complaint with the information commissioner’s office. The Commissioner investigated and concluded that the PCO was unjustified in withholding the records. The Commissioner recommended that Harper fully comply with The Canadian Press‘ request and the PCO, “on behalf of the Prime Minister, declined to implement the recommendation.”


A potentially explosive parliamentary investigation into the Harper government's so-called "muzzling" of government scientists shows no signs of being released before the federal election on Oct.19, despite Canada's Information Commissioner digging into it for more than two and a half years.
“Voters need to know what the result of that investigation has been,” said law professor Calvin Sandborn, with the University of Victoria's Environmental Law Centre. “I think the public needs to know the extent of the muzzling… Our submission is that it runs very deep in government."
In February 2013, the university law group, together with Democracy Watch, filed a formal complaint to Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault, alleging federally employed scientists, with expertise from fisheries to fracking, are under a gag order from sharing their taxpayer-paid expertise and scientific findings with the press or public. Two months later, in April 2013, Legault agreed to investigate the Harper government information restrictions as possible violations of Access to Information laws. She pledged to look into complaints at seven different government insitutions:
National Observer has been writing the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada for months, asking: 'Will this report come out before the election? Why has it taken more than two and a half years? Is the office understaffed? Is the report itself being muzzled by the Conservative government?'



And then there is our recent hero, Harperman’s composer, Tony Turner, was told to stay at home from his job at Environment Canada in July after his employers told him they were investigating whether he had breached the public service’s code of ethics. Now, in his first interview since he was sidelined by Environment Canada eight weeks ago, Turner has said he will end his seclusion and take his protest song on the campaign trail ahead of the country’s general election on 19 October.


Turner officially quit his job on Thursday evening, after his employers said the song breached protocol calling on public servants to remain impartial. Turner and his union vigorously dispute the finding. The songwriting public servant had been scheduled to retire in November.


Can we believe anything that those who would hide, suppress information in this way, say? Can we trust, and vote for, those who attempt to intimidate citizens who criticize their actions past and present? I think not!


Finally we have the much touted TPP 'agreement which we are told is 'good for Canada' but whose detailed script we will not see till after the election.....
“Conservative Leader Stephen Harper promised long-term funding to help the auto industry adjust to the newly-signed Pacific Rim trade deal and said automakers would have been worse off if Canada had not signed the 12-nation pact. ......... If re-elected, the Conservatives would provide $1 billion over 10 years beginning in 2018, when a current Automotive Innovation Fund expires, to help the auto industry deal with the reduction of protective tariffs under the TPP.”



If its such a good deal how is it that Harper has promised millions to help the auto industry and dairy farmers deal with the fall out from it, before the ink on it is barely dry never mind available for public scrutiny .... and how many other areas of our economy will need “helping”, what other things that effect our sovereignty have been agreed to?


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Vote, Vote, Vote - Vote ABC

Are you Registered to Vote?


By this time you should have received your Voter Information Card telling you where your polling station is located, if you have not received one then either you are not on the list or you information on that list is incorrect and you should call or visit your local Election Canada office and get your information added or corrected.

If you did receive a card then check it out and make sure that the name and address matches that on your personal identification, in particular the address. If it does not contact EC and get the electors list corrected or you may be turned away on voting day.
Find your local EC office address and phone number here.......

UPDATE
I am told by someone who recently took poll clerk training that should you turn up at a poll with address information that does not match the listings or when you are not on the list then you will NOT be turned away but added to the list and asked to swear that you have not voted elsewhere.


Its a difficult choice we must make this time around in order to remove the current dictator from power, the choice of which other candidate (and thus the party they represent) is best placed to defeat the incumbent, or new, conservative candidate is not always clear in many ridings. You may be tempted to say I want him gone but I am not sure who else to vote for and therefore not bother. Please don’t do that, if the more that 40% of folks who did not vote last time get out and vote ABC then ANYTHING can happen in any riding.
So make sure you are on the list, your details are correct, and get out and VOTE, dont let Harper steal another election with his unfair election act changes designed to discourage voting and prevent Elections Canada from encouraging voters to vote and hamper investigation of electoral fraud.

Advance voting days
October 9, 10, 11 and 12, noon to 8:00 p.m.

Election Day is Oct 19^th
The time polls are open will vary depending upon your time zone but ALL are open a minimum of 12 hours

Other ways to vote
Go to any Elections Canada office by 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 13

No card?
Find out where to vote and check out if you are on the voters list here by entering your personal information


VOTE, VOTE, VOTE ABC

More voting wrinkles
Just found an interesting wrinkle in the voting process for those who wish to keep their face covered, despite have all the required documents the same as those who do not have photo ID and are permitted to vote right away those with face covering must swear an oath before they may vote. This does not seem logical or fair.

Those who want to make a protest by accepting a ballot and then refusing to vote will not be counted as refusing but their blank ballot placed in the box and counted as a spoiled ballot. A far better way to make your dislike of the system known would be to vote for a candidate who supports electoral reform. 31,000 people voted for “none of the above” in the last provincial election in Ontario where such an option was available, lets make every vote count..... against the dictatorial and corrupt Harper Regime!

As in all previous elections those that are turned away due to insufficient or incorrect identification or being at the wrong poll are not counted so we will never know how many voters tried to vote but were denied the opportunity. Please be sure you are on the voters list and have matching identification.
This information and more can be found in the polling clerks training manuals available on line on the Elections Canada site.
http://www.elections.ca/content2.aspx?section=job&dir=form/droop/man&document=index&lang=e


You should also have received a flyer regarding what to do if you did not receive a card which says you must present ......

1) Show one of these pieces of ID

• your driver's licence
  
• your provincial or territorial ID card
  
• any other government card with your photo, name and current address
  

2) Show two pieces of ID

At least one must have your current address
What it does NOT say that said address much match in large part the address that EC has on file if it does not or if they have no listing you will have a problem.... call EC to ensure you can vote.

VOTE, VOTE, VOTE ABC
Almost 10 million Canadian voters did not vote for one reason or another in 2011, if all these folks make their wished know in this the most important election in years, possibly in Canadian history, then we CAN get rid of this undemocratic regime.............

In the 2011 Federal Election the conservatives formed government (with a disproportionate number of seats) with approximately 700,000 votes more popular votes than the runner up HOWEVER over 9.5 Million eligible voters did not vote. You CAN make a difference get out and VOTE! 
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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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