The Canada thread

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Re: The Canada thread

Postby American Dream » Tue Jun 19, 2012 10:29 am

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Canad ... story.html

Canadian Forces warned of possible infiltration by white supremacist group

By DAVID PUGLIESE, The Ottawa Citizen June 18, 2012

Image
In 1997 the Canadian Forces kicked out Nathan LeBlanc, 25, from Canadian Forces Base Petawawa after he was involved in theft and found to have hate literature among his possessions. Just weeks after his removal from Petawawa, LeBlanc took part in the fatal beating of Nirmal Gill, 65, on the grounds of a Surrey, B.C., Sikh temple. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter was sentenced to 12 years in prison.


OTTAWA — Canadian Forces intelligence officers have been warned that a U.S. white supremacist group is expanding into this country and that military members could be attracted to the organization.

Officers with the National Counter-Intelligence Unit were told about the expansion of such groups into the Canadian Forces, as well as the attraction these groups have for members of the Forces, during a meeting of specialists looking into hate crimes and extremists movements. “Many of the conference speakers and attendees were aware of serving or retired DND/CF members that are part of these groups,” the counter-intelligence summary report from January 2011 pointed out.

The Citizen obtained the report through the Access to Information law.

The name of the white supremacist group expanding into Canada was censored from the documents for reasons of national security.

Asked about the counter-intelligence reports, the Canadian Forces issued an email noting, “The beliefs held by white supremacist groups are not compatible with the ethics and values of the CF.”

“The men and women of the Canadian Forces are held to high ethical standards and the Canadian Forces has a zero tolerance for white supremacist or otherwise racist behavior,” the email stated. “Any reports of members being associated with white supremacist groups would be thoroughly investigated.”

But the report noted that military intelligence specialists were following up on the information they were provided about military members and their affiliations with extremists groups.

In addition, in a July 2011 counter-intelligence report, the officers provided an update on an ongoing operation against extremists based in Edmonton, Alberta. All the details, including the code name of the operation, were censored from the records for reasons of national security.

The presence of white supremacists in the ranks of the Canadian Forces has been an issue that has dogged the military over the years.

In March 2011 the military launched an investigation into the activities of a Winnipeg-based soldier who planned to attend a white pride rally in Calgary. The 17-year-old reservist denied he was a racist, although he acknowledged posting comments on racist websites and planned to travel to Calgary to watch the rally.

In 2003 the military launched investigations into allegations that six members of the Canadian Forces were involved with white supremacist groups.

In 1997 the Canadian Forces kicked out a 25-year-old soldier from Canadian Forces Base Petawawa after he was involved in theft and found to have hate literature among his possessions. Just weeks after his removal from Petawawa, Nathan LeBlanc took part in the fatal beating of Nirmal Gill, 65, on the grounds of a Surrey, BC Sikh temple.

LeBlanc received a 12-year sentence while some of his fellow neo-Nazis involved in the attack received 15 years in prison. The judge called them “unrepentant racists.”

During a subsequent investigation, four other privates in LeBlanc’s company were identified as having possible racist involvement. No charges were laid, but all four were the subject of administrative action such as mandatory probation and counselling.
The counter-intelligence report obtained by the Citizen acknowledges that white power and neo-Nazi groups are “attractive to some members of DND/CF.”

“Major recruiting tools used by these groups are social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube,” the report stated. “The music is also known to be a major recruiting tool.”

“Groups such as the (censored) could potentially cause an individual to change allegiances from the (censored),” the report added. “Belonging to a White Power/Skinhead/Neo-Nazi group could foster the spread of hate for minorities within DND/CF.”

The National Counter-Intelligence Unit is responsible for identifying and dealing with threats to the military from a variety of sources. Those include foreign spies, terrorists, extremist organizations and criminals.

The reports obtained by the Citizen covering 2010 and 2011 also contain details about possible espionage but the incidents appear minor. They include reports of individuals possibly taking photographs of military personnel or equipment. Another report outlines warnings to Canadian government and military personnel that hotels in a particular country might be outfitted with listening devices. The name of the country is censored from the documents but the report contained warnings that military personnel should be careful what they discuss with each other when travelling to that nation.

In one of its reports, the intelligence officers also provided for “situational awareness” a synopsis of the October 2011 Occupy protests in various cities in Canada. It pointed out that such protests were peaceful and did not pose any threat to DND or the Canadian Forces.

“Protestor numbers increase on weekends and in the evenings when supporters are not working,” according to the report. “Many Occupy camps appear to have attracted the local homeless population in addition to the core protestors.
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Re: The Canada thread

Postby Feilan » Tue Jun 19, 2012 12:07 pm

Handsome B. Wonderful wrote:To be glib, I think allowing US law enforcement to make arrests in Canada, sucks.


I second your glibness. I high-five it. I strongly agree. :mad2

The sucking you speak of along with all the other suckage going on in Starbucks North has reached such a crescendo it can now be heard in outer space -but- only by aliens who actually give a fuck about the Kanuckistani body politic, presently trending just a titch higher than Canadians who are -by and large- giving slightly fewer fucks, much to my/our dismay... :hamster: sigh. I'd love to be wrong about that, but I don't think I am. Printemps d'Erables notwithstanding (and I DO think that spark may even yet birth a multilingual cross country flame ...), otherwise the land is in a deep dark sleep and has been for quite some long bloody time or it would NOT have gone this far.

Mind you, I'm far away at the moment. Other side of the planet - far. Maybe the loop my friends have been helping me keep up with via great quantities of linkage is misleading? Perhaps all hope is not lost?

Still and all - a majority government in 'Our House' = the Divine Right of Kings. There will be no stopping those mother f*ckers for another 3/4 years. They will do what they will. The bat-shit crazee kitten-eating neo-fascist control freak has *loosed* his minority parliament restraints. This, ladies and gents, is just year one.

Then what? What will we be left with? By which I mean - wtF is this http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2012/06/14/ns-parks-canada-letter-warning.html unspeakable weasel-brained shite?

I have begun referring to my homeland as 'Bill c-38' land. Don't look now, but I think the well-fed lady has commenced warbling: "Ohhhhh Canada, WTF have you done...?..." :scaredhide:

edited for a typo. my typos make me sad.
Last edited by Feilan on Wed Jun 20, 2012 1:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Canada thread

Postby Jeff » Tue Jun 19, 2012 1:30 pm

I've just posted this. A few scenes from our national disgrace set to Harper's rendition of The Who's "The Seeker."

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Re: The Canada thread

Postby Canadian_watcher » Tue Jun 19, 2012 8:29 pm

Feilan wrote:
Then what? What will we be left with? By which I mean - wtF is this http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2012/06/14/ns-parks-canada-letter-warning.html unspeakable weasel-brained shite?



FEILAN! yay! nice to 'see' you again.

... As to the gagging of federal employees: while I agree that it is heinous and backward and a threat to truth, justice & democracy it isn't new. I'm glad it's 'out there' in the news though, because it's just one of those little fucking secrets that the gov't has gotten away with for as long as I've known, anyway. The oath to the Queen, you see.. you may not speak ill of anything the Crown does. i found this out for SURE for sure when I wanted to (and did) begin a one-woman campaign against the unwritten rule against 'quitting' a bad doctor. I was called by the news and ten minutes later I was in my boss' office being warned that this could result in my dismissal. They pointed out that some other federal employee marched with teachers or something in the past and was caught on camera and done away with. Don't know if it's true or not but .. it did shut me up.

So see? Their little scheme is very effective. I think the only positive thing that's going to come out of the cuts to the public service will be that there will be more people free to speak their minds. People who know. People who are pissed off. For a while they will be people who desperately want to go back to work for Big Daddy, but that won't last long.

----------

On a non-related note: how 'bout the effing 'dance tax?' I've been trying to find a video clip of a new report about it to post here but I can't. .. Basically anyone who wants to play music at ANY event will now owe some fed agency $26.00 for copyright permission or w/e. PLUS, if anyone dances at those events, the fee roughly doubles to $55. my god.

You know they taxed windows once, right? That's part of the reason there are all those bricked/stoned up former windows on ancient houses. here I always thought they just got sick of the air & light. Silly me. Interestingly, it is said that this window tax also spurred on the creation of those half door thingies.. you know, where the bottom and top close separately? Living under tyranny sure does make people creative.
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When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him. -- Jonathan Swift
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Re: The Canada thread

Postby Feilan » Wed Jun 20, 2012 2:22 pm

hello there, C_W :) , comrade canucks and international observers in this here thread, fellow travelers on the road to ruin. It's true what *they* say about misery, eh? ...

I've been lurking since I went all quiet, not that I had much to offer in the first place. I think I've deleted more posts than I've submitted. :blankstare
The good ship rigorous remains an important part of my news gathering, and I've got a solid v.p.n vault over the great fire wall...anywho, to the matters at hand...


It's true that the gagging and binding is old hat, but it's got a new feather in it from what I understand. Maybe I have it wrong. It's often so much worse than I think, *sigh*... I always thought there was some kind of distinction between the governing party and the Crown - what I mean is:

Yes, there's the oath to the Queen, but surely nobody has to also agree to eat, sleep and dream, "Heil Harper and his ass clowns!" while It&Its make a shit stain of our feeble little pretensions to democracy, eat the poor and salt the earth with random oil spillage ... and don't almost all public servants still have the right to express themselves freely as private citizens ...? I mean - I guess what you're saying is in practice - no - they'll be threatened and shut down.

Obviously, in practice, that which they would be best contributing to public debate, ie. insight gleaned from their daily grind as bitches doing the dear leaders bidding - is off limits. Unless they speak on behalf of a union of public employees says the letter to Parks Canada slaves ... [in that capacity enjoying a much greater scope of freedom of expression.] ... :confused

The molding news about gagging the science and research community in the Government of CANADA's employ has had me scratching my head so hard it hurts. Is that actually in line with ... well anything? Isn't their duty to the people first? How is it legal for the government of the day just to cut their tongues out? I didn't and still don't get that, but no doubt I am still missing something. I am rather dense.

My Dad was a career officer in the military (air force), now retired. He is/was also a good man and well respected by his junior ranked, which stands out somewhat because that's not at all common. That's neither here nor there regarding the reason I mention him, that being the restrictions on his freedom of speech whilst he was among the enlisted. I recall the the first time the worm turned on Iraq ... "No Blood for Oil" read the pamphlets we handed out and the signs we carried, and by 'we' I mean the other not quite/barely 20 something neo-hippies I was gadding about with in those bygone days.

We were in front of the library in downtown Halifax making our pitch at passers by when along came a fellow in uniform who politely refused advances and proffered literature from one of our earnest little mob ... he/she (the earnest peer of mine) got really angry and hurled some verbal gob-shite at him. I explained that he is actually not permitted by law to engage with them on such a matter while in uniform and both he and they may not like that, but that fact should be understood before making assumptions. I had learned that from my Dad and had always understood it to imply that if he were out for a Sunday stroll with his dog in a pair of Bermuda shorts and a polo shirt it would be perfectly fine to accept a pamphlet and chat awhile. Would he also be legal to join a demonstration presuming he conducted himself within the law as applies to any private citizen on their own time? I always thought so, but now I'm not sure at all.

And nowadays he'd need to bring a few bucks to chip in on the dance tax fund?

Jayzus H.

We all remember this steaming pile of Harper, don't we? http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/948436--tories-rebrand-government-of-canada-as-harper-government

(Toronto Star, March 3, 2011)

OTTAWA—It’s official: Stephen Harper rules.

And lest anyone forgets, a directive went out to public servants late last year that “Government of Canada” in federal communications should be replaced by “Harper Government.”

Public servants from four different line departments told The Canadian Press the instruction came from “the Centre” — meaning the Prime Minister’s Office and the Privy Council Office that serves the Prime Minister.

None would speak on the record for fear of retribution. It’s a well-grounded concern given the treatment of a senior government scientist who was fired in 2006 after rebelling against a directive to use “Canada’s new government” in government communications.

Andrew Okulitch was subsequently reinstated after his story went public, and the Conservatives finally retired the “Canada’s new government” handle after 21 months in office.

The “Harper Government” moniker rose to prominence in 2009, when its use was noted in light of a controversy over Conservative MPs posing with giant, mock government cheques bearing the party logo and MPs’ signatures. The mock cheques were consigned to the dustbin, and the “Harper Government” handle went into partial hibernation.

Since December, “Harper Government” has returned with a vengeance, sprouting like mushrooms across departmental communications.

The Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why the new messaging has been implemented.

Scores of news releases — from the Canada Revenue Agency to Fisheries and Oceans, Finance, International Trade, Health Canada and Industry Canada — are all headlined by “Harper Government” actions.

Even the Treasury Board Secretariat is using the term.

The Treasury Board is the federal department charged with policing government communications policy, including the Federal Identity Program — which to a layman’s eyes appears to forbid such off-handed personalization in government titles.

Among other things, the policy states “the criteria for creating an applied title include that it must: incorporate the word Canada or appear with the words Government of Canada ...”

Treasury Board spokesman Robert Bousquet said by email “the use of the expression ‘Harper Government’ is not prohibited by either the Treasury Board’s Federal Identity Program Policy nor the communications policy of the Government of Canada.”

Bousquet added: “In fact, it’s factual in that it is the government of the day.”

Journalists routinely use “Harper government” to describe Conservative government actions. But the moniker’s employment by the government itself is raising hackles among more than just some straight-laced civil servants.

“It is one thing for journalists or even the public to use the more partisan ‘Harper government,’ but it is another thing for the state to equate the Government of Canada with the leader of the governing party,” said Jonathon Rose, a specialist in political communications at Queen’s University.

He notes such language is expressly forbidden under an Ontario law that prohibits partisanship in government messaging.

“The effect of this subtle framing just before an election is to equate government with Harper,” said Rose. “It creates a perception of a natural affinity between one party’s leader and the act of governing.”

The Harper-centric messaging prompted Rose to recall French King Louis XIV and his 17th century divine right of kings: “L’État, c’est moi,” quipped the political scientist. “The state is me.”

But Mel Cappe, a former clerk of the Privy Council, finds nothing amusing in the development.

“It is not the Harper Government,” Cappe said in an interview, tersely enunciating each word. “It is the Government of Canada.

“It’s my government and it’s your government.”


I dig his passion, but it isn't true no matter how true it should be. It's not my government. It's a farce and a highway robbery. It's a rape.

It's absolutely true that this business of being gagged by government order coming up again and again is good in that exposes the lie most of us have been telling ourselves about the right to speak up in Canada -- or -- it would be good if dots were properly connected and fucks were righteously gathered and given.

Prorogation was - of course - also an act of gagging - the penultimate ball gag on parliament in session.

At the end of the day the song remains the same - our doom is not handed down by the lazy minded (sadly, including my dear old dad) who voted again and again for the vile usurper of right honourable anything and his band of drooling lickspittles, rather the nation we were still hoping we might build together has been completely abandoned by everyone who doesn't vote at all/against them.

I really can't stand it anymore. The Fords ... the Harper, the litanies, the long lists, the laments. The majority swindle that's rendered us all of no more consequence than meat on a hook. That's a big part of why I committed the pitiful act of running away to China to work and get lost a little - that and the fact that there is only un/under employment to look forward to 'at home'. I 'cut and ran' you might say. Sad, eh?
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Re: The Canada thread

Postby Handsome B. Wonderful » Wed Jun 20, 2012 6:47 pm

Feilan wrote:I really can't stand it anymore. The Fords ... the Harper, the litanies, the long lists, the laments. The majority swindle that's rendered us all of no more consequence than meat on a hook. That's a big part of why I committed the pitiful act of running away to China to work and get lost a little - that and the fact that there is only un/under employment to look forward to 'at home'. I 'cut and ran' you might say. Sad, eh?


How can I get out too? :P I've thought about moving to Japan and teach english as a second language, hook up with one of those gigs, but I guess only corporations pay for those and I just can't bring myself to leave Canada. I still believe it's a great place to live. Although the job I currently have is just that, a job. Barely keeps my head above water. :(
Born we are the same, within the silence, indifference be Thy name
Torn we walk alone, we sleep in silent shades
The grandeur fades, the meaning never known- 'Born' Nevermore
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Re: The Canada thread

Postby Feilan » Thu Jun 21, 2012 2:36 am

Yo, Handsome B. Wonderful (oddly disarming handle - I like it :partyhat ),

:threadhijacked: temporary blip:
I don't recommend Japan for various reasons, chief among them - it glows in the dark now. I have a good friend who taught English in and around Tokyo for over 10 years, and he did really well for himself. He got in and got his toehold before the rapid decline of that particular job niche - there are a lot fewer good jobs than there were a decade or so ago. You need a really good one to combat the cost of living anywhere in Japan. He's back in the big smoke now winding up a masters. He's a tough nut, but the onslaught of nuclear terror and his proximity to it sealed the deal - time to head home. Mind you, proximity to nuclear terror is now on the top ten list of shit humans have in common no matter where they are on this planet... :blinky:

If you are seriously curious about such a thing in ooooh - say ... China, p.m. me and I'd be glad to offer what I can about how that works (broad strokes) ... in precis, what opportunities there are in the middle kingdom (many, many) differ greatly depending on whether one is an experienced certified teacher or an educated native speaker of English. Still, 'head above water' can be a lot more achievable in China and a bit more comfortable depending on certain factors.

:backtotopic: :cheers:
Many people will sleep for a hundred years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirit back. ~ Louis David Riel
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Re: The Canada thread

Postby Feilan » Thu Jun 21, 2012 3:21 am

http://www.ipolitics.ca/2012/06/13/michael-harris-ten-things-stephen-harper-hopes-you-forget-by-2015/

This:

Ten things Stephen Harper hopes you forget by 2015
iPolitics Insight - Posted on Wed, Jun 13, 2012, 5:05 am by Michael Harris

Tyranny, the arbitrary exercise of power by a government, usually pads up behind you in stockinged feet. It has to. In a democracy, stealth is the only way it can succeed.

But in Canada these days, it pokes you in the chest with an index finger while shoving you backwards with the other hand. As it turns out, Blaise Pascal might have been right: mankind can get used to anything, including the breathless loss of democratic freedoms when the usurping party masquerades as strong, competent government. Six years in to Harper rule, blue eyes and mascara apparently have everyone taking a few steps backwards.

Bill C-38 is the first thing Stephen Harper hopes you forget in time for the next election. It is passing through parliament like an institutional kidney stone the size of the Ritz. Wags in Ottawa who briefly portrayed it for what it is, the demise of parliament, are already slipping into discount mode. There have been omnibus bills before, they say; all’s fair in love, war and politics, they say; why, it’s just Elizabeth May’s slumber party, that’s all.

Even principled journalistic stands are subject, it seems, to the summary execution of the fifteen minute news wheel. The second coming of Christ would be bumped by Lindsay Lohan running her Porsche into the back of an 18-wheeler. Pity. What we have here is a coup. Bill C-38 upends the primacy of parliament. The government has effectively dealt out every federal MP, including the ones on the government side, from having a say in the radical makeover of Canada. What else can you call it when 74 pieces of legislation are changed without debate or due process? These are the ideas of one man, the ideological love child of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.

More disconcerting, what is to stop Dear Leader from returning next year with another “budget implementation bill” that builds on his deconstruction of Canada as we know it? Certainly not Speaker Andrew Scheer. Personally, I think it’s time Scheer took down that portrait of Sir Thomas More that graces the Speaker’s Office. It’s time to hang his real hero, Pierre Poilievre, patron saint of coming when you’re called.

The PM also hopes Canadians will forget 20,000 police on Canadian streets during the obscenely expensive G-8 and G-20 meetings of 2010. In Toronto, the guys in the riot gear would have done Hosni Mubarak proud. The security arrangements included kettling, beatings, unlawful arrests, and other examples of excessive force not normally associated with Canada.

According to the Office of the Independent Police Review (the sort of office Harper has done away with at CSIS) there was no legal justification for arbitrary searches by police and the debacle ended with the largest mass arrests in Canadian history. And now we find out that one of the threats to national security identified by Canadian Forces was “embarrassment to the Government.” Finally, the transformative touch of humor: if embarrassment is the measure of danger to the state, Canada faces no graver national security threat than the ones posed by Peter MacKay, Bev Oda, and Christian Paradis.

Mr. Harper hopes you forget the F-35, an unprecedented fiscal, military, and political fiasco brought to you by a corrupt military procurement system in the U.S. and a rogue DND in this country unchecked by the civilian side. Too many zeros on the cheque is the government’s best defense; that, and the availability of robots like Julian Fantino, who will apparently read anything that is put in his hands. The public money about to be wasted is unimaginably staggering and on that account meaningless – or so the government hopes.

But lying about the program’s costs to the tune of at least $10-billion, as the Harper government has done, is different. It offends the stuff they taught in Sunday School. People get that. Souring the mendacity even further is the brazen illogic of the cover story. How could it be a good idea to start production on a jet fighter before testing it, choose between options before running a competition amongst prototypes that actually fly, and decide to buy it without knowing the cost? Would any of us buy a lawnmower that way? A gas can? Dazzle me with numbers, but don’t ask me to die stupid.

The Harper government would like you to forget that the Liberals in Canada haven’t been the only fiscal drunken sailors of Confederation. Only once in the 20th century did a Conservative government balance the budget – Robert Borden in 1912, thanks to a surplus handed to him by Sir Wilfred Laurier. By the next year, Borden was back into deficit.

So far, the Conservatives have repeated the feat once again in the 21st century, in 2006. This time the surplus was inherited from Paul Martin. Within a year, the government was back at the job of building the largest deficit in our history. Of course, that didn’t stop them from pillorying the other guys as the signature wastrels of the public purse. As they say in Newfoundland, if you get the reputation for being an early riser, you can lie in bed until noon.

It would also be convenient for you to forget that Stephen Harper once promised that he would not change the Old Age Security system to fight the deficit. He did just that.

Former Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney made a similar promise in his day. He declared entitlement payments to be a “sacred trust”. How sacred? He promptly announced that pension benefits for seniors would no longer be fully indexed to the cost of living. The chin that walked like a man was skewered by a pensioner whose words shot across the nation back in 1985: “You made promises that you wouldn’t touch anything…you lied to us. I was made to vote for you and then it was goodbye, Charlie Brown.”

Stephen Harper doesn’t want to meet his Solange Denis, but certainly not because he has any idea of backing down the way Mulroney did. He’d rather you just forgot about it.

As he would like you to forget about the Accountability Act, that dress rehearsal for better Tory governance that never went into production. Other politicians give you their word, Stephen Harper gives wording. His gift as a rhetorical trickster has rarely been more in evidence than in the voluminous charade known as the Accountability Act. Duff Conacher, the founder of Democracy Watch, has graded this piece of legislation appropriately – a belly-flop from the high-diving board of political BS. It features a commitment to language and an aversion to acting on the language that conjures up the PM’s greasy undermining of the Atlantic Accord. Best forgotten.

It would also be appreciated by the Harper government if you took a nice long drink from the Lethe on the subject of what used to be called federal/provincial relations. The prime minister has eschewed a meeting with the premiers like a man making a detour around a leper colony. In Mulroney’s day, the view was that consensus was the only way for the country to compete and prosper. That’s what his National Economic Conference and fourteen First Ministers’ gatherings were all about. Stephen Harper’s idea of a meeting of the minds is his mind and a lot of stenographers. Just ask Jim Flaherty’s provincial counterparts on the matter of health transfers.

It would also be nice if you could forget that the Harper government’s first instinct on regulating the Internet was giving police the right to snoop into the private lives of Canadians without warrants. This they called law and order. Government, the hapless Vic Toews assured us, has business in the computers of the nation. And if you didn’t see it that way, you stood with the child pornographers. Yes, exactly the way that you were a subversive radical if you had misgivings about the government’s lust to build pipelines, leaky or otherwise, while paying lip service to environmental issues.

The government would be especially grateful if you could just let slip into oblivion that whole unfortunate incident about the beautification of Tony Clement’s cottage-country riding, that exercise in rural renewal that came at the small price of misleading parliament and misappropriating money – from the Border Patrol Agency to the Conservative Party of Canada. And if you are good enough to forget that slushy little fact, the government would be doubly grateful: that way you might not wonder before marking your ballot the next time how this particular fox could have then been put in charge of all those chickens over at Treasury Board.

Finally, Stephen Harper would really like you to forget that he is a niche prime minister who has consistently served the wealthy and the corporate while “managing” the great unwashed as the problem children of society – the ones who go on strike, who dare to disagree, who expect too much, who cost rather than contribute to the treasury – even if they have spent a life-time doing just that. There is little patience, tolerance, proportional thinking or moral imagination in his government. What there is, spun out of a weird amalgam of Austrian economics and American neo-conservatism, out of personal rebukes and unlikely triumphs, is one man’s unalterable conviction that he, and he alone, knows best.

The metamorphosis of democracy into something else begins with forgetfulness and ends with an eerie silence where once there was a multitude of voices.
Many people will sleep for a hundred years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirit back. ~ Louis David Riel
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Re: The Canada thread

Postby 2012 Countdown » Fri Jun 22, 2012 1:22 pm

Canada to join Trans-Pacific trade talks
Louise Egan, Reuters June 20, 2012


LOS CABOS, Mexico - Canada will join 10 other nations in talks aimed at creating an Asia Pacific free trade agreement, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced on Tuesday, part of a bid to reduce reliance on the U.S. market in favor of fast-growing emerging economies.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks are aimed at creating a free-trade zone with a combined population of 658 million people and a gross domestic product of more than C$20 trillion ($19.65 trillion).

"This is a further example of our determination to diversify our exports and to create jobs, growth and long-term prosperity for Canadian families," Harper told reporters in the Mexican beach resort of Los Cabos on the sidelines of a G20 summit.

Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama said in a joint statement that the two countries shared the goal of "expeditiously" reaching a "high standard agreement that will build on the commitments of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement)," which went into force in 1994 and phased out most trade barriers between the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The deal will likely increase pressure on Canada to scrap a farm support program that other countries see as protectionist. Canada limits domestic production of dairy, poultry and eggs to match demand, and high tariffs are imposed on imports to protect farmers, a scheme considered unfair by competitors but one that has been politically sacrosanct.

Many of Canada's farmers consider supply management essential to their survival since it allows them to compete against much larger U.S. competitors. Defending supply management has always been Canadian government policy.

Keen to avoid losing votes in the province of Quebec, home to a big dairy industry, the Conservatives have promised to keep the program intact and exempt it from any eventual TPP negotiations.

U.S. business groups welcomed Canada's entry to the talks, which came fast on the heels of Monday's announcement that G20 host Mexico would also join the negotiations.

"Companies and workers in our three countries literally make things together, with supply chains that cross our borders and make North America more competitive on the global stage. As a result, negotiating the TPP together is an excellent strategic decision for North America," said Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said the White House would soon formally notify Congress of its intentions to enter trade talks with Canada, beginning a 90-day consultation period on U.S. negotiating objectives.

"Given the close integration between our economies, Canada's inclusion in TPP is the right decision and should be mutually beneficial. It will also give us the opportunity to correct the mistakes of NAFTA, especially on labor and the environmental standards," said Representative Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee.

Harper said there were no conditions attached to Canada's entry to the TPP talks when asked if he would put supply management on the negotiating table.

"Canada has not agreed to any specific measures in terms of an eventual Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement," he said.

"Canada aims, whenever it gets into a trade negotiations, to promote and to protect all of its interests across all the range of industries ... and Canada's record in terms of dealing with those particular issues in trade negotiations under our government has been very strong and that will continue to be our position," he said.

He said Canada would not seek to undo any progress already made by existing TPP partners and that the negotiations were in very preliminary stages. "As in any negotiations, nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to by all parties."

Canada's accession to the TPP will take a period of time, he said, without giving details.

Therese Beaulieu, spokeswoman for the Dairy Farmers of Canada, a national lobby and promotional group for Canada's 12,965 dairy farms, said the group expected Harper to defend supply management. "Canada has been able to conclude a number of trade agreements before, and we've kept supply management. We have confidence that they can do it again."

Canada's opposition political parties oppose elimination of supply management but political analysts have said that even with opposition in farming areas, there is the potential for a political upside from urban voters if prices of milk and chicken fall.

Gerald Keddy, parliamentary secretary to the minister of international trade, reaffirmed on Tuesday that Canada did not give anything away to be part of the talks.

On Monday, Mexico also joined the TPP talks, while doubts remained over Japan's seven-month-old bid to join the negotiations. The other countries negotiating the trade pact are Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

Each member country must separately approve Canada's bid to join the talks. The government expects to have observer status at the next round of talks planned for July, but an agreement among the nine countries currently in the group is not expected for at least another year.

"Negotiations will likely extend well into 2013 before a deal is struck. It may even drift longer than that. But it is certainly do-able in the second half of 2013," said Jeffrey Schott, a trade scholar at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

The Washington-based think tank on Tuesday released a study estimating the potential global income gains of a TPP pact at $295 billion, including $78 billion for the United States.

Schott said he expected Japan to come into the negotiations some time next year, and also expected South Korea to join before an initial deal is struck.

Japan's GDP is about $5.9 trillion and South Korea's is $1.1 trillion.

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Re: The Canada thread

Postby Jeff » Sat Jun 23, 2012 10:27 pm

Every day now I think, so this is life in a corrupt petrostate.

Canada falls out of top fifty in global freedom of information rankings:

Canada finds itself tied for 51st in the world on a list of freedom-of-information rankings, languishing behind Angola, Colombia and Niger. After some number-crunching to standardize findings, it turns out Canada is even lower on the list — 11 spots to be exact — than when it was first published last September....


Rio+20: Canada Exits Environmental Summit 'Very Happy' With Lack Of Firm Commitments For Change:

"Canada's satisfaction with this document is as much as with what's not in it," Kent said, adding he was "very happy, very satisfied" with the outcome.

While he said the federal government was in good company in this sentiment, other delegations and most environmentalists watching from the sidelines were dismayed.

"They have put forward neither new money nor new engagements," Anne Minh-Thu Quach, the NDP deputy environment critic, said in an email from Rio. "It's empty words again. Pitiful and shameful."


A conservative writes:

The conservative conscience is in turmoil

June 23, 2012 - 4:13am By RALPH SURETTE

Are you among those baffled and alarmed by what’s going on with the Harper government — wild slashes to public services, every-thing connected to democratic process trashed, a bully-boy attitude that is soiling Canada’s international reputation, the attack on everything environmental, even the destruction of public records, all delivered in a dictatorial and malicious spirit?

You have company. Among the growing numbers of your friends are conservatives — real ones — realizing that Stephen Harper is not one of them, but rather a right-wing radical, maybe worse, out to conserve nothing. As some ex-Tory politicians, federal and provincial, stood up to oppose the manipulative omnibus budget bill, the PC Party of Canada declared the Harper party “corporatist” — essentially rule by and for corporations.

(Yes, there is a “Progressive Conservative” party, led by Mulroney-era cabinet minister Sinclair Stevens, but it can’t call itself that. Harper, in one of his acts of vandalism, legally obliterated the word “progressive,” making sure that nobody would ever link it to “conservative.” The PC stands for Progressive Canadian. I’m not sure if they do anything but send emails, but their running critique of Harperism has intrigued me, considering the source.)

Keep in mind that one of the dirty words for “corporatist” is “fascist.” Is that over the top? When I watch a guy like Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, who acts as though he’d be comfortable as minister of Internal Security for most dictatorships on Earth, I wonder.

Keep in mind too that something similar is unfolding in the U.S., where moderate Republicans are realizing, to their horror, that even Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. wouldn’t pass muster with today’s party extremists.

Many pundits seem to be baffled by some of Harper’s moves because they don’t make short-term sense electorally. But Harper is a man on a long mission. His inspiration is in the Bush-Cheney caper, complete with electoral dirty tricks manual. His philosophy would be that of the Republican guru who delivered the famous line that the idea was to make government so small that you can “drown it in a bathtub.” After that’s done, corporations take over, elections are manipulated and the little guy gets even littler.

...

As in other jurisdictions that employ the “big lie” technique, the trick is to keep the announcements coming so fast, with expertly manipulated timing, that the opposition, the media and the public stay off balance and don’t realize the real effects until later.

...


http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/11 ... in-turmoil
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Re: The Canada thread

Postby Canadian_watcher » Sat Jun 23, 2012 11:25 pm

^
word.

the thing is, there is some wierd happening happening.. IE people that were once progressive are strangely tied to this 'father knows best' attitude. I honestly thinK the most brilliant political move Harper ever made was reiterating the phrase "Let me be clear...." over and over and over and over and over.

I also think that he had paid trolls out to populate the Globe and Mail (and other) "liberal" comment sections. It was hardcore during the election period (they've almost all but disappeared except for the notable appearances on clearly anti-Harper gov't articles)

Like you, Jeff, I also think to myself if this isn't a little bit like how it must have felt for <any culture that's gone through tyrrany> right before the hammer really dropped. Was everyone just attending music festivals and planning their retirement when all of a sudden it was akin to a crime to shop at establishments which were owned by new <anyotherculturians>?

What exactly would it take to wake people up? I believe I've watched enough -what happened in the years before it was clear Hitler was a maniac- documentaries to know that people just go about their business.. nothing will stop them. NOTHiNG seems to stop them.

And so we are doomed to lather, rinse, repeat until hopefully someday the bottle is empty.
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Re: The Canada thread

Postby Feilan » Sun Jun 24, 2012 2:18 am

Preamble to a preamble: I'm truly sorry if this is considered off topic, but then again, I consider the manner in which we approach those we love and can connect with on such serious matters as we are about here very salient... If I should make this it's own thread, please let me know.

Ahem :eeyaa

Preamble to a serious question: I'll be visiting my home and NATIVE land very soon. I'll have about 5 weeks to see the loved ones including 4 days with the parents in Ottawa. They both voted more than once for the monster in question ... well, they voted for one of his toadies on the slab in their riding, but yah - they voted for the Endless Night of the Living Dead regime that is KILLING ALL THE THINGS. My Dad and I used to talk politics a LOT when I was young and ornery by which I mean more ornery than I am now. It was the basis of our interactions, fraught with open conflict and diametrically opposed points of view. Dad and I have reached a place of mutual respect and we really try to listen to each other these days, though we skirt around the biggest stuff that used to wind us up...

Question: Do I look for an opportunity to probe the old man regarding the Harper project to murder Canada and hand it over to a network of corporate overlords on an expensive plate with parsley garnish and a stuffed kitten posed in a gesture of obeisance?

I find myself thinking about this a lot. I respect my father for many reasons and I don't think he's a tool in spite of his voting tendencies. He reads a LOT, I'm just not clear who or what he's reading that led him to go the way of the lemming. My Dad and people like him opened the door for Harper. I really want to know where his head is at with this, but I don't want to fight... thoughts? Suggestions? Personal anecdotes? Surely part of solving the problem lies in reaching out to people we know who are elsewhere with this stuff and opening up a conversation ... this is the road to the changing of many hearts and the lighting of many fires, non? 1 by 1 ...?
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Re: The Canada thread

Postby Jeff » Sun Jun 24, 2012 8:18 am

Feilan wrote:Question: Do I look for an opportunity to probe the old man regarding the Harper project to murder Canada and hand it over to a network of corporate overlords on an expensive plate with parsley garnish and a stuffed kitten posed in a gesture of obeisance?


My dad's always voted Conservative, though he's not much of a reader, but I'll try to field this one.

That piece from a dissenting old-school Tory I posted above, maybe float that by him. If he recognizes the perspective as close to his own, he may be more amenable to the argument than if it were obviously left-partisan.

We need as best we can to remind people like your dad that this Conservative Party is Reform in masquerade and the product of Harper's first coup. It's why I will never call them Tories. They stole the regalia of the old party to make themselves look respectable, traditional and part of a continuity. They're none of that.
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Re: The Canada thread

Postby JackRiddler » Sun Jun 24, 2012 1:33 pm

Jeff, what the hell is this?

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Re: The Canada thread

Postby Iamwhomiam » Sun Jun 24, 2012 1:50 pm

I dunno, Feilan, after time away, being so far away and knowing life is rife with uncertainties, perhaps it would be best to leave the rubbish, with all its stink, at the curb and concentrate on the simple enjoyment of being in the company of family.

However, if indeed your relationship with your father has been developed through past discussions of the various qualities of aroma to be found within the heap, Jeff's approach seems sensible. It's reasonable and understandable for one to want to know better their parent, whom they are according to their own definition. "So what are you reading lately, Dad?" "And what was it that prompted you to choose this book to read?"

I wish you a safe and most joyous visit home.
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