Canadian Democracy Under Attack

Canada is rapidly becoming a glaring example of a democracy in decline.  With a minority government, Canada’s democratic process should be healthier than it has been in years.  The Conservatives, as the minority government, should be hard at work building consensus between parties and trying to balance public opinion to avoid loosing a non-confidence vote.  Instead, Stephen Harper has done his best to limit and control the media, he has made a mockery of our parliamentary system through two self-serving prorogations, he is now trying to limit the power and effectiveness of parliamentary committees, and he has restricted the lawful freedom of citizens to information... sadly the list goes on.  Anyone of these issues taken by themselves are disturbing enough, but when put together, they illustrate a party that has a complete disregard for the democracy they are charged with upholding and protecting.

The Conservatives have repeatedly misused and corrupted the system in order to maintain their grip on power, as was evidenced in their prorogation of Parliament to avoid loosing a non-confidence vote in December of 2008, and then using the same tactic a year later to stymie debate on the abuse and torture of Afghan prisoners, an issue that was causing them considerable political grief.  Prorogation of Parliament is a completely legitimate and normal part of the Parliamentary Cycle, but when used by a party to avoid continued scrutiny by the public and the Opposition, it undermines democracy itself, as public and political scrutiny are the foundation upon which the entire democratic system depends for its very support and survival.

For a leading party to shut down public and political debate with the sole intent of maintaining its own grip on power, is a sure sign that the party is not as dedicated to the democratic process as it is to using the process to gain and maintain their own power.  The fact that they did it twice in a year is only slightly more disturbing than the fact that Canadians did nothing about it.  A few people got angry, a few demonstrated and once the Conservatives re-opened Parliament, it was back to business as usual.  The Conservatives were never held accountable for betraying their sacred trust, to serve and protect our democratic principals.  This type of behaviour is unacceptable and Canadians should be outraged at the outright perversion of our political system for personal and political gain.

At every turn, the Conservatives have tried to avoid accountability to the people through any means at their disposal, even though this very accountability in any democratic system is the key to its survival as an institution.  In their latest moves to try and block the Opposition from viewing documents relative to an ongoing debate, preventing staff from testifying in Committees, and trying to prevent the proper and lawful release of documents under the Freedom of Information Act demonstrate the utter contempt this party has for public debate and makes one wonder what they are trying to hide.  

At end of day however, it is the common thread that has run through the leadership history of the Harper Conservatives, since they first began trying to restrict the press’ ability to question their members freely.  They are trying to limit the flow of accurate information in order to diminish any effective public and political opposition thereby strengthening their own grip on power.  Like most tyrants in the making, they hide behind the rhetoric of war and the impending danger to us all should we show any weakness at all.  They speak of state secrets that if revealed, will so weaken our military and intelligence networks that the walls of our great nation will begin to fall down around us as our enemies storm the gates.  This is the same tired rhetoric used by every tyrant who has traded in fear to tighten their grip on the reigns of absolute power, but it is nothing more than a smoke screen meant to blind us to the truth.

As Canadians, we need to start demanding a higher standard of conduct from our politicians, especially when they begin to act like our current leader and his party.  By allowing them to continue exploiting and perverting our democratic system, we are telling our politicians that we do not truly care about our democracy.  Worst of all, by allowing these transgressions now, we are setting dangerous precedents for the future.  A relativity of conscience will begin to occur, whereby each democracy limiting measure will seem less an affront and will be much easier to commit for successive parties seeking to consolidate their hold on power.  We need to tell the Harper Conservatives and the currently lackluster Opposition Parties that enough is enough.  We love our Democracy, our Freedoms, and we demand a higher standard of governance.

Related articles from the SilentRebellion

• Canadians must demand that MPs submit to audit (nationalpost.com)
• Stephen Harper flunks Info-sharing 101 (theglobeandmail.com)
• Journalists take feds to task for access failure (cnews.canoe.ca)
• PM abuses prorogation (winnipegfreepress.com)
• Harper’s latest Senate appointment has a locker-room scent (nationalpost.com)
• Budget bill an 'end run' around Parliament, says expert Franks (hilltimes.com)
• Tories block staff from testifying at Parliamentary committees (thestar.com)

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Getting Angry about World Hunger

Jeremy Irons makes a great appeal in this video for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (F.A.O.) campaign called 1billionhungry.

With the G8 and G20 meetings coming up in Huntsville, Ontario, the attending nations need to understand that there is outrage in their own nations that 1 billion people are hungry in this world.  And here is why:

• According to the U.N. F.A.O., there were approximately 923 million undernourished and starving people in the world in 2007
• this was an increase of over 80 million since 1992. 
• As of last fall, this number had jumped to over 1 billion or 15 percent of the worlds population. 
• One sixth of the world's population is malnourished and surviving on less than $1.25 (U.S.D.) a day. 
• It is estimated that the number of undernourished people in the world will reach 3 billion by 2050, assuming that contributing factors do not worsen

According to Oxfam International, this unprecedented crisis can be contributed to many factors which include:

• climbing food and oil prices
• the recent global economic crisis
• increased demand in India and China,
• climate change and the resulting crop failures
• the co-opting of crops for biofuel production
• the increasing dominance of large agriculture companies
• and gross mismanagement of agricultural and food policies.

Sadly, for many people in the west, there is very little empathy or concern for what they see as a far away problem.  Even the fact that there are far to many hungry children and families within their own borders is of no matter.  However, this is an issue that affects us all very deeply and could have some very serious effects as we move into the future.  For example, there has been a serious decline in global food reserves, down to only a 90 day supply of staples such as wheat, as well as unprecedented hoarding on a global scale.  When these factors are combined with the massive crop failures of late and the world wide financial crisis, there has been a flurry of price speculation which has resulted in a tripling in the cost of the world's basic foods such as rice, maize and wheat.

We need to get angry because one of the greatest obstacles to finding effective solutions and carrying them out is the general apathy of Western nations to the plight of those in countries so far away.  There is a sense among many that it is a problem affecting a far away land, unrelated and unconnected to our own.  We need to let our leaders, the multinationals, and the speculators know that enough is enough, we're not going to accept any more of their self-serving crap.  They need to known that we see right through their empty rhetoric and that we are not going to accept it any more.  Its time to take action against those who would benefit from the mass suffering of others. 


Click here to sign the U.N. F.A.O. petition to let your anger and your outrage be heard.

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• Farmers, Aid Groups Call Attention To Drought, Food Shortages In West Africa (medicalnewstoday.com)
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• High food costs force Indians to do more with less (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
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Bank Taxes and Sinking Ships

IN THE NEWS TODAY and yesterday, there has been a great deal of debate over the best way to insulate society and its banks from a another financial meltdown.  Many in the European Union in conjunction with Obama and the International Monetary Fund are pushing a Global Bank Tax, which Canada opposes as "unfair" since the Canadian banks remained relatively unscathed in the last crisis thanks to the tightly regulated banking system.  Instead they are pushing a system of "contingent embedded capital" reserves to prop up the banks in next market collapse.  However, the details are not of any concern to me here, but have a look at the links below for more details. The important thing for me is the absurdity of the entire financial system.  To me, it seems like our governments are busy fixing the water damaged furniture on a sinking ship.

There are a number of things that I find disturbing about the whole debate, but mainly its the idea that our society seems willing to continue allowing a bunch of lawless sociopaths to gamble with their futures.  These market implosions occur far to regularly, though in varying degrees, and seem to be occurring more quickly as time progresses.  Each one causes innocent and hard working people to loose their jobs, their savings and their security which in the long run can lead to increasing crime, broken homes and broken people. 

As a democratic society, we entrust our governments with the sacred duty of protecting us against chaos, yet our entire system is propped up by a fundamentally chaotic institution that frequently implodes, devastating our communities and destroying lives.  Instead of imagining ways to protect the banks and investment houses from themselves, maybe we should be considering a new, less chaotic system.  One that does not reward psychopathy and one that will truly serve the interests of the people.  

We are at the mercy of a financial system that is so obviously broken, and has been since its inception.  Would you buy a house that is expected to spontaneously explode every few years?  For most us, the answer would be no, but this is exactly what we are doing in our financial current system.  Though not the first free market failure, the Great Depression should have been brutal enough to warn us that the system was fatally flawed, but instead, we have suffered from repeated recessions and serious downturns since.  Each time, there was a plethora of devastated families, communities and even nations.

So, instead of debating which method is best to protect the banks and investment houses from themselves, why don't we look at building a new stable system that does not implode at regular intervals.  Why don't we stop the leaks instead of glossing over the water damage?  

Related articles from the SilentRebellion

• What The #!%*? The global bank tax explained (nationalpost.com)
• FAQ on Canada's bank tax alternative (cbc.ca)
• Canadian Leaders Fighting Global Bank Tax (nytimes.com)
• Why PM fights for banks (theglobeandmail.com)

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• Risk Inverse: The Third World Is Now a Better Bet (time.com)