Harper, accountability and democracy

Accidental Deliberations: The reviews are in
Lawrence Martin:
(The Conservatives) campaigned heavily against Liberal abuse of power and promised a new era of accountability. And the Accountability Act did, in fact, contain many fine reforms. But as Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch (who advised the Conservatives on the legislation) will tell you, a goodly number of the proposed reforms never made it to the table, and others that were enacted have since been violated in spirit. When Stephen Harper's all-controlling proclivities are factored in, the end result has been a further worsening of the problem.
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J.D. Salinger dies at age 91

J.D. Salinger, author of ‘Catcher in the Rye,’ dies at age 91 - thestar.com

More people in Quebec think Elvis is alive than like Stephen Harper

Of polls and advertising - The Globe and Mail
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To begin, CROP (Quebec's most credible pollster) reports that only 5 per cent of Quebecers are "very satisfied" with the job the Harper government is doing, a number well below the Elvis Threshold -- the number of respondents who would also report that Elvis is still alive. Another 32 per cent are somewhat satisfied.
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"Harper and his too-clever-by-half cronies in the PMO neglected to consider a very important constituency"

Prorogation, Disengagement and Cutting the Democratic Deficit in Canada « bastard.logic
News on an interesting report on Canada and Canadians by the Institute of Wellbeing.

Harper plans to help women and children in the 3rd world, he reduced support for them in Canada

Stageleft: life on the left side » Shorter Stephen Harper
Harper talks big on the world stage about women and children, yet back at home he has been cutting funding for women's issues and child poverty for years.
The example in this article is about Inuit children and how little Harper cares for them.

Libby Davies wants to spank Harper

Libby Davies on wanting to give Harper a spanking - Hill Queeries
Interview recently with Libby Davies, NDP House Leader.

Flash protest rallies against prorogation

DAMMIT JANET!: We got 'em on the run!
Reports on recent flash protests at various locations, mainly 2 protests where Tony Clement was speaking.

Parliament carries on, oh, but wait, without the Conservatives.

Impolitical: Back to work aftermath
So how did it go yesterday? The first day on Parliament Hill post weekend prorogation rallies saw the opposition parties arrive to carry on with regular business on matters like youth unemployment, while the government treated us to a pretty coordinated effort to distract from prorogation.
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Green Party leadership troubles

democraticSPACE.com/blog
Trouble has been brewing for a while behind the scenes in the Green Party; today it boiled over in David Akin’s National Post piece, which highlighted the upheaval over May’s leadership in the wake of a mass exodus of senior party officials. The exodus included the firing of Political Campaign Director Catharine Johannson, the resignation of Executive Director Maureen Murphy, and the resignation of the party’s Federal Council Donna Dillman — all in addition to the recent firing of 4 of the party’s 7 organizers and 3 other staff resignations, including its long-awaited and just-hired Quebec Press Secretary. Rumors are that the Greens are facing dire financial consequences, which has no doubt prompted widespread cutbacks.
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The direct cost of Prorogation

The Scott Ross: Actual Cost of Prorogation $130 Million
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In combining the direct cost of Canadians paying for a Parliament to do nothing for 22 days and the indirect cost of Parliament's lost time due to scrapping a portion of viable Bills, the total cost of prorogation can be justifiably approximated at $130,407,733.
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More Conservative Spin

Accidental Deliberations: The reviews are in
Yesterday, Conservative anyonymice (sic) were offering a new reason for prorogation. The PM, we were told, wanted to ensure that ministers with new portfolios had time to bone up before facing their opposition critics in Question Period.

Pish.
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And, Stockwell Day is now in charge of reigning in spending. His experience? He was Alberta's treasurer - the per capita spending then in Alberta was the highest of any province in Canada. They put a big spender in a position to reign in spending.

Staff gutted at Rogers-owned CITYTV Toronto

Citytv cuts on-air, production staff
Citytv is cutting shows, production staff and on-air talent including veteran CityNews at Six anchor Anne Mroczkowski.
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Ott wouldn’t comment on other staff cuts but the story on Citytv’s website lists the “remaining on-air staff” and they don’t include: Lara Di Battista, Pam Seatle, Farah Nasser, Jee-Yun Lee, Marianne Dimain, Merella Fernandez, and Michael Serapio.

On Tuesday afternoon, the online biographies for those eight broadcasters were all removed from the website.

Mroczkowski had worked there for 23 years. Di Battista and Seatle are both also veterans.

An unknown number of production staff were also laid off.

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The mood inside the Rogers building was grim, as most employees were fearful for their jobs.

“It’s just awful,” said one employee who was not part of the cuts. “Basically, ever since Ted Rogers died, so did the vision of Citytv as a national network player. Nobody has any vision. The bean counters have taken over and they want to turn us into Omni 3.”

The purchase of Citytv was a signal change for Rogers, which is much better known for providing the cable signal than actually running TV stations. It’s previous experience with broadcasting was with community programming stations, and it’s Omni brand of multicultural stations, which are both much cheaper to run than full fledge TV stations, that buy content from U.S. networks. As well, with only five stations in big cities across Canada, the Citytv brand was much smaller compared to the national coverage of its competitors, CTV and Global.

Temple dedicated to cat goddess found in Alexandria

Temple dedicated to cat goddess found in Alexandria - thestar.com

Who does this lazy Parliament represent anyway

Bill Longstaff: Who does this lazy Parliament represent anyway?
Excellent post by Bill Longstaff regarding what the make-up of parliament actually represents and what it does not.
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A telling passage from one letter particularly caught my eye:

Judging from the current “representation” most Quebecois want to quit the federation; most Canadians are reluctant to elect women; there are no Conservative supporters in Vancouver, Montreal or Toronto; there are no Liberal supporters in Alberta. There are no New Democrat supporters in Saskatchewan and remarkably few elsewhere, and no Green supporters anywhere in Canada.

Although it appears farcical, this is indeed what the current makeup of Parliament suggests, and it's a sad and disturbing message. The fact that Conservatives are not represented in our three major cities and Liberals are not represented in Alberta, even though many people in those areas support those parties, contributes to dangerous divisions in an already regionally divided nation. That millions of Canadians are unable to help elect someone who represents them is a democratic tragedy.
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Crisis in Haiti deepened by problems of the past and the international community

IMF to Haiti: Freeze Public Wages

Since a devastating earthquake rocked Haiti on Tuesday--killing tens of thousands of people--there's been a lot of well-intentioned chatter and twitter about how to help Haiti. Folks have been donating millions of dollars to Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti (by texting "YELE" to 501501) or to the Red Cross (by texting "HAITI" to 90999) or to Paul Farmer's extraordinary Partners in Health, among other organizations. I hope these donations continue to pour in, along with more money, food, water, medicine, equipment and doctors and nurses from nations around the world. The Obama administration has pledged at least $100 million in aid and has already sent thousands of soldiers and relief workers. That's a decent start.

But it's also time to stop having a conversation about charity and start having a conversation about justice--about recovery, responsibility and fairness. What the world should be pondering instead is: What is Haiti owed?

Haiti's vulnerability to natural disasters, its food shortages, poverty, deforestation and lack of infrastructure, are not accidental. To say that it is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere is to miss the point; Haiti was made poor--by France, the United States, Great Britain, other Western powers and by the IMF and the World Bank.

Now, in its attempts to help Haiti, the IMF is pursuing the same kinds of policies that made Haiti a geography of precariousness even before the quake. To great fanfare, the IMF announced a new $100 million loan to Haiti on Thursday. In one crucial way, the loan is a good thing; Haiti is in dire straits and needs a massive cash infusion. But the new loan was made through the IMF's extended credit facility, to which Haiti already has $165 million in debt. Debt relief activists tell me that these loans came with conditions, including raising prices for electricity, refusing pay increases to all public employees except those making minimum wage and keeping inflation low. They say that the new loans would impose these same conditions. In other words, in the face of this latest tragedy, the IMF is still using crisis and debt as leverage to compel neoliberal reforms.

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Fire and Ice - beautiful photos

Fire and Ice - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Only in Canada: Harper's prorogation is a Canadian thing

Yappa Ding Ding: Only in Canada: Harper's prorogation is a Canadian thing

Go searching for the last time a Westminster-style parliament was shut down to free its leaders from unwanted censure or scrutiny — and you'll end right back in Canada, where you started.

It turns out, no other English-speaking nation with a system of government like ours — not Britain, Australia or New Zealand — has ever had its parliament prorogued in modern times, so that its ruling party could avoid an investigation, or a vote of confidence, by other elected legislators.

Only three times has this happened, all in Canada ...

I'm glad I got my flu shots

1.5M Canadians off sick with flu in Nov. - Healthzone.ca
In comparison, the number of hours lost is much great than what is lost with just the regular seasonal flu
Gilmore said the last time the province documented such significant loss in hours was during the blackout in August 2003

The last time I had the flu I was off work for a week. Now that I am self employed, I really can't afford a week off.

Do the Harperites think nobody gives a damn when you defecate all over those values

Accidental Deliberations: The reviews are in
Column by Rick Salutin on Harper's prorogation move.

MSM beginning to come around?

Revised media reaction to prorogation. « Scott's DiaTribes
It’s kind of amusing to watch the second guessers in the media take aim at their comrades for being wrong on the public’s negative reaction to Harper proroguing Parliament.
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Fair Vote Canada's letters to the PM and to the Opposition leaders

Challenging the Commonplace: Strongly-Worded Letters to PM, Opposition Leaders
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(excerpt)

At present the House of Commons embodies and projects a series of ridiculous untruths. Judging from the current “representation” most Quebecois want to quit the federation; most Canadians are reluctant to elect women; there are no Conservative supporters in Vancouver, Montreal or Toronto; there are no Liberal supporters in Alberta. There are no New Democrat supporters in Saskatchewan and remarkably few elsewhere, and no Green supporters anywhere in Canada...

Each of you should now be asking: does my party really want democratic representation for all Canadians, and what will my party risk or sacrifice, now, to achieve it?
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Worst Governer General Ever?

Pulse Niagara Online Edition

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Harper deliberately chose to pick a political fight with the opposition just six weeks after promising to work with them. Faced with certain defeat, he demands Jean prorogue Parliament. Did she consult with the leader of the opposition to see if he could lead a government? There’s no sign she did. Instead, she simply gave in.
Fast forward one year and Harper is again in trouble—this time over his government’s handling of the Afghan detainee torture issue. On the last day before the Christmas holidays, MPs passed a motion calling on the government to release thousands of uncensored documents on Afghan prisoners. Harper promised the committee looking at the issue they would receive “all legally available documents.” Instead, he prorogues Parliament, thus disbanding all committees in both the House and the Senate and killing government bills, no matter how close they were to approval.
And as many others have argued, Harper’s timing said everything. He chose to announce on December 30 – the same day five Canadians were killed in Afghanistan and at a time when the public and media were focusing on the announcement of Canada’s Olympic ice–hockey team that Parliament wouldn’t resume until March 3. Even more troubling is that Harper didn’t even bother to follow tradition and make his “request” of the Governor–General in person, instead telling her over the phone. Yet, the Governor General’s official residence is right across the street from the Prime Minister’s Sussex Drive home. Constitutional expert C.E.S. Franks, a Queen’s University professor, called Harper’s actions “an affront to the dignity of the office of Governor General.”

The British magazine, The Economist, an influential and largely right–wing publication, stated in an editorial, “Mr. Harper’s move looks like naked self–interest.” The magazine, which once dubbed former Prime Minister Paul Martin “Mr. Dithers”, said Harper’s a competent tactician with a ruthless streak. “The danger in allowing the Prime Minister to end discussion any time he chooses is that it makes Parliament accountable to him rather than the other way around.”

Top Ten Reasons Stephen Harper Prorogued Parliament

The Top Ten Reasons Stephen Harper Prorogued Parliament | The League of Ordinary Gentlemen
Comic, but true!
(By true, I mean it had everything to do with the Afghan Detainee Scandal, etc.)

Y chromosomes evoloving

Chimp and human Y chromosomes evolving faster than expected

Richard Colvin Part 1 video

Facebook | Videos from Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament: Richard Colvin Part 1 [HQ]

Richard Colvin - Aghanistan Testimony - part 2 of 2 video

YouTube - Richard Colvin - Afghanistan Testimony - PT 2-2

Colvin testimony on torture in Afghanistan and the Canadian Government

Colvin torture testimony – the full transcript : Contrarian

Dr. who assaulted 2 cyclists with his car gets 5 years in prison

California doctor gets five years in prison for assaulting bicyclists | MNN - Mother Nature Network
California doctor Christopher Thompson was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and other charges for seriously injuring two bicyclists, Josh Crosby and Patrick Watson, seen in the photo above outside court, in 2008 by slamming on the brakes of his car after pulling in front of them. One of the cyclists smashed his face into Dr. Thompson's back windshield and the other seriously injured himself after bouncing off the car and onto the road. The good doctor told a police officer who arrived on the scene that he was trying to "teach them a lesson".
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Harper: Meddling with human rights

Dawg's Blawg: Harper: meddling with human rights
The non-partisan International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, established by Parliament in 1988 to promote human rights and democratic institutions around the world, is under siege by the ideologically-obsessive Harper government.

Calculate how much more the HST will cost you

HST Calculator | Block the HST
n this economy, it’s already tough to make ends meet, let alone put savings away.

But the Harper Conservatives aren’t making it any easier. Their HST means higher taxes on everyday products that used to not be taxed - like haircuts, the internet and home heating.

Stephen Harper doesn’t think you should know how much his high-tax agenda will cost you. New Democrats do.

Use the NDP’s HST Calculator to find out how little extra cash Ontario and BC families will have if the Harper Conservatives - supported by the Ignatieff Liberals - get their way.