Many will ... but don't underestimate Canadian voters too much. Many do tend to know bullshit when they see it. I don't think this tactic will work well for the Harper government in the long run. They need to be careful if they don't want to come off as scared assholes.
ya ... but it plays right into their base ... conservative voters eat this shit up like fried chicken and waffles ... ... it's what got Harper into power and ultimately what will keep them in power ...
as long as 65% of the country split their votes 4 ways ... it'll be hard to unseat these asshats ...
Many will ... but don't underestimate Canadian voters too much. Many do tend to know bullshit when they see it. I don't think this tactic will work well for the Harper government in the long run. They need to be careful if they don't want to come off as scared assholes.
ya ... but it plays right into their base ... conservative voters eat this shit up like fried chicken and waffles ... ... it's what got Harper into power and ultimately what will keep them in power ...
as long as 65% of the country split their votes 4 ways ... it'll be hard to unseat these asshats ...
Agreed.... hey, it's an argument for a 2 party system... :think:
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
Sure Canadians will fall for it. They've voted Harper in 3 times and he's used the same tactics.
They'll also fall for it because look at how many have fallen for Trudeau even though he was light on policy, and it appeared Garneau or Murray were far better candidates.
To me the combined governments of Canada have spent the better part of the last 30 years or so dumbing people down through the education system so they won't realize how badly they are getting screwed they are.
People kept voting him in because they are comfortable, and yes, are scared of change for the worse. With Harper, those people have not suffered or been very uncomfortable (not thanks to Harper, but thanks to Canada's unique abilities to withstand the global economic crisis relatively unscathed). I don't think it had anything to do with his campaigning tactics personally.
I actually think that Trudeau has been pretty clear about what his policies would be... Sounds like you are falling for the Conservative line too maybe; that's their tactic - to make it seem like he's light on policy. I do not believe this is has actually been the case.
Anyway, the Liberal party is not likely to have a sudden meteoric rise in 2 years (although anything's possible - politics can turn on a dime; god knows what might happen in 2 years). But I think that the election after than will likely be where the Liberals can make a real come back under Trudeau. Especially since by then Harper is going to be old and will be very, very unappealing to younger voters (not that he isn't already to some extent).
No actually I'm not falling for any tactics. I don't like Trudeau and that's my own opinion, the liberals put someone in charge of the party that they feel is best able to lead them back in power, not becacause he's necessarily the best candidate but because he's the most like able ... The liberals feel they are the only one who can run the country ... The truth is neither the conservatives or liberals are very good at running the country for the average citizen and that there is my opinion. So don't fucking tell me I'm falling for any conservative or liberal bs.
I have certain rules I live by ... My First Rule ... I don't believe anything the government tells me ... George Carlin
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
Sure Canadians will fall for it. They've voted Harper in 3 times and he's used the same tactics.
They'll also fall for it because look at how many have fallen for Trudeau even though he was light on policy, and it appeared Garneau or Murray were far better candidates.
To me the combined governments of Canada have spent the better part of the last 30 years or so dumbing people down through the education system so they won't realize how badly they are getting screwed they are.
People kept voting him in because they are comfortable, and yes, are scared of change for the worse. With Harper, those people have not suffered or been very uncomfortable (not thanks to Harper, but thanks to Canada's unique abilities to withstand the global economic crisis relatively unscathed). I don't think it had anything to do with his campaigning tactics personally.
I actually think that Trudeau has been pretty clear about what his policies would be... Sounds like you are falling for the Conservative line too maybe; that's their tactic - to make it seem like he's light on policy. I do not believe this is has actually been the case.
Anyway, the Liberal party is not likely to have a sudden meteoric rise in 2 years (although anything's possible - politics can turn on a dime; god knows what might happen in 2 years). But I think that the election after than will likely be where the Liberals can make a real come back under Trudeau. Especially since by then Harper is going to be old and will be very, very unappealing to younger voters (not that he isn't already to some extent).
No actually I'm not falling for any tactics. I don't like Trudeau and that's my own opinion, the liberals put someone in charge of the party that they feel is best able to lead them back in power, not becacause he's necessarily the best candidate but because he's the most like able ... The liberals feel they are the only one who can run the country ... The truth is neither the conservatives or liberals are very good at running the country for the average citizen and that there is my opinion. So don't fucking tell me I'm falling for any conservative or liberal bs.
Whoa, easy there. :? I do not support the conservatives or the liberals either. I said that because you iterated the exact same line that the conservatives are dishing out, while the point is in fact false. That's why i thought you were swallowing their line. If you just independently came up with the same BS that the conservative party did, then I am sorry for attributing your original BS to another source.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
Conservative anti-terror bill and arrests match up beautifully, don’t they: Mallick
No attack was imminent and the tip was a year old.
How odd. The week after the Boston bombings, the Conservative government had MPs suddenly debating an anti-terror bill that had long been hanging around with its hands in its pockets. The very same day, conveniently, the RCMP arrested two alleged terrorists.
They had a tip from an imam, the cops said. They got it a year ago.
Call me cynical. I’m not, I am hopeful credulity itself, but the anti-terror bill is shameful and the arrests dubious. The police press conference consisted of a dozen white male cops — and a token female — in a variety of uniforms congratulating each other and offering next to no information.
“Let’s get the details in English and in French, it’s how they roll,” said a Fox News guy named Shep. “God love Canada, but they’re not great at the television.” God love Fox, but they’re not great at the journalism.
The attack was not imminent, the RCMP said, but was allegedly “Al Qaeda-sponsored” and had ties to Iran. It was aimed at a Via train route between Toronto and New York.
This seems strange. One could hardly choose a more unobtrusive target than Via trains which spend much time maddeningly stationary anyway. A lawyer for one of the arrested men noted in court the odd coincidence of timing Tuesday, as did NDP defence critic Jack Harris in the House on Monday. What fearful symmetry.
And why would Al Qaeda, Sunni by nature, work with Iran, a Shiite nation? But perhaps that’s just how Iran rolls.
The anti-terror bill, known as the Combating (sic)Terrorism Act is being rushed through its third reading. It is a horrifying bill, just as it was when it passed in 2001, when it was not renewed in 2007 thanks to the Liberal opposition, and when it finally reached the Senate last year.
But now the Conservatives have a majority and this is what they want. As Leslie MacKinnon of CBC News reported, “preventative detention” would mean that any Canadian could be arrested and held for three days on suspicion of terrorist involvement with no charge being laid.
“An investigative hearing” means that someone suspected of knowing about a terrorist plot could be imprisoned for up to a year if they refused to answer questions.
The bill would also make it illegal to leave Canada if you intend to commit an act of terrorism. This is presumably aimed at people going to training camps or meetings. But what it means is that Canadian police may well take the word of foreign governments making wild claims about any Canadian travelling overseas.
Imagine you or me, on vacation, being arrested on those grounds. The question is: Do you trust Stephen Harper and the Conservative government and the RCMP to do the ethical, informed, reasonable thing in your case? Or do you expect them to follow a hard-right ideology, to overreact as the Americans do?
The RCMP is a disgraced police force. Cute as it is when American journalists joke about arrests by scarlet-suited men on horseback, the most recent memory I have of the RCMP is watching them terrify, hood and tape down a young girl on an airplane.
She was the late Ashley Smith. The Smith videos are films of torture by committee, and the torture is being applied by Mounties and guards.
I do not trust them, just as I no longer trust Toronto police after the G20 debacle and do not trust a Harper majority government. Its calling card is to warn us non-stop of “Muslim terrorists,” which might not offend were this government neutral on religion.
It is not. Radio Canada reports that Ottawa has just given $20 million of infrastructure spending to 13 Christian universities, seminaries and colleges, from Evangelical to Baptist to Mennonite. These schools are taking our tax dollars even though they illegally prohibit gay relationships.
It isn’t a government’s role to build up one religion against another. It would be uncivilized. Equally, the terror bill is too draconian for Canada. It is more suited to a panicked U.S., but yes, it will pass because the Conservatives have a majority.
It will be a shameful day.
Doesn't matter who we elect! We need real change in the way we choose our elected officials, not just federally but provincially. Not 1 federal leader is worthy to be prime minister ... in Ontario where I live I feel the same way not 1 of the three main party leaders is fit to be premiere. And you what I find sad ... I never hear any of the leaders saying "we need to grow the economy". Here in Ontario where fucked ... the manufacturing jobs that paid $20-$30 with good benefits have been replaced with $11-$13 jobs with poor benefits. I would not doubt for 1 minute that this was the intent of politicians to drive out the good paying jobs to see them replaced with lower paying jobs. After all how often does the media or anyone else ever focus on government revenue ... but they sure focus on the unemployment rate though ...
So as for this bill being introduced on Monday the same day they made 2 arrest ... it's does strike me as odd ... and nothing surprises me with politicians anymore.
I have certain rules I live by ... My First Rule ... I don't believe anything the government tells me ... George Carlin
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
I don't need to sign no petition, I don't watch any of that rubbish and that includes CNN, msnbc, cbcnw, ctv 24 hour news ... I watch a little of the national and my local news and that's it. I just cancelled my sat package anyhow and have an antenna guy on comining in a couple weeks.
None of them report the news anymore ...
I have certain rules I live by ... My First Rule ... I don't believe anything the government tells me ... George Carlin
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
Canadians are already dumbed down ... Look at every salivating at the trudeau's prospects
obviously it's not perfect ... but what makes you think trudeau would not be a good pm? ... is it his ideology? ... is it his connection to some special interests or corporations? ... or is it simply he is part of a system you've already abandoned?
Canadians are already dumbed down ... Look at every salivating at the trudeau's prospects
obviously it's not perfect ... but what makes you think trudeau would not be a good pm? ... is it his ideology? ... is it his connection to some special interests or corporations? ... or is it simply he is part of a system you've already abandoned?
He's part of the same old system ... I've stated before that federally the libs and cons have been running the show forever and this country is going backwards instead of forward...imo.
As far as Canadians being dumbed down ... I truly believe that ... I just have to look at the area I live in ... 1000's of good manufacturing jobs have been replaced with $11-$13 jobs and they continue to vote libs, cons or NDP ... this area battered with high unemployment and low paying jobs at least send a message and vote green, start a movement ... but for the life of me their being screwed and don't even realize it or want to get their collective heads out of their ass's.
I have certain rules I live by ... My First Rule ... I don't believe anything the government tells me ... George Carlin
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
He's part of the same old system ... I've stated before that federally the libs and cons have been running the show forever and this country is going backwards instead of forward...imo.
As far as Canadians being dumbed down ... I truly believe that ... I just have to look at the area I live in ... 1000's of good manufacturing jobs have been replaced with $11-$13 jobs and they continue to vote libs, cons or NDP ... this area battered with high unemployment and low paying jobs at least send a message and vote green, start a movement ... but for the life of me their being screwed and don't even realize it or want to get their collective heads out of their ass's.
i hear ya and it's not that i necessarily disagree ... but when i compare our political landscape vs. that of say the US ... it's like a thousand times better ... if i look at the current leaders - only Harper stands out as someone who is tied to an agenda that isn't tied to Canadians ... i think the old school liberals are on the way out and although i probably still wouldn't vote for him ... i do think that it's a move in the positive direction ...
at the end of the day - we can only hope for honest and transparent governance ... some of the problems our country has isn't necessarily tied to the politics but like you said - people are stupid ... if everyone continues to only look out for themselves - it's not possible to create a country that works for the majority ...
all i know is i'm so glad my choices here aren't people like donald trump, rand paul, michelle bachman and the likes ...
He's part of the same old system ... I've stated before that federally the libs and cons have been running the show forever and this country is going backwards instead of forward...imo.
As far as Canadians being dumbed down ... I truly believe that ... I just have to look at the area I live in ... 1000's of good manufacturing jobs have been replaced with $11-$13 jobs and they continue to vote libs, cons or NDP ... this area battered with high unemployment and low paying jobs at least send a message and vote green, start a movement ... but for the life of me their being screwed and don't even realize it or want to get their collective heads out of their ass's.
i hear ya and it's not that i necessarily disagree ... but when i compare our political landscape vs. that of say the US ... it's like a thousand times better ... if i look at the current leaders - only Harper stands out as someone who is tied to an agenda that isn't tied to Canadians ... i think the old school liberals are on the way out and although i probably still wouldn't vote for him ... i do think that it's a move in the positive direction ...
at the end of the day - we can only hope for honest and transparent governance ... some of the problems our country has isn't necessarily tied to the politics but like you said - people are stupid ... if everyone continues to only look out for themselves - it's not possible to create a country that works for the majority ...
all i know is i'm so glad my choices here aren't people like donald trump, rand paul, michelle bachman and the likes ...
So true ... Just wish people would wake up ... It's time for some change, which I don't see happening anytime.
I have certain rules I live by ... My First Rule ... I don't believe anything the government tells me ... George Carlin
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
OTTAWA—The federal government can’t account for how it spent more than $3 billion earmarked for anti-terror initiatives, the auditor general says.
In a report released Tuesday, Michael Ferguson looked at Canada’s security spending in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and discovered that the government was unable to explain how it spent almost a quarter of the cash.
The audit examined Ottawa’s “public security and anti-terrorism” program that was launched in late 2001 with the goal of deterring terrorism. The program had broad goals and included spending on air security, emergency preparedness, intelligence and policing and border infrastructure.
In all, some $12.9 billion was earmarked for the initiative. However, departments and agencies reported spending just $9.8 billion between 2001 and 2009, leaving $3.1 billion unaccounted for, Ferguson writes in his audit report.
However, officials chalk up the discrepancy to lax bookkeeping. The audit suggests several scenarios for what may have happened: the funding may have lapsed and never been spent; or it may have been spent on anti-terror efforts but reported as other program spending; or it may have been spent on program unrelated to security.
OTTAWA—The federal government can’t account for how it spent more than $3 billion earmarked for anti-terror initiatives, the auditor general says.
In a report released Tuesday, Michael Ferguson looked at Canada’s security spending in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and discovered that the government was unable to explain how it spent almost a quarter of the cash.
The audit examined Ottawa’s “public security and anti-terrorism” program that was launched in late 2001 with the goal of deterring terrorism. The program had broad goals and included spending on air security, emergency preparedness, intelligence and policing and border infrastructure.
In all, some $12.9 billion was earmarked for the initiative. However, departments and agencies reported spending just $9.8 billion between 2001 and 2009, leaving $3.1 billion unaccounted for, Ferguson writes in his audit report.
However, officials chalk up the discrepancy to lax bookkeeping. The audit suggests several scenarios for what may have happened: the funding may have lapsed and never been spent; or it may have been spent on anti-terror efforts but reported as other program spending; or it may have been spent on program unrelated to security.
Less than a generation ago, Canada was a world leader when it came to the fundamental democratic freedoms of assembly, speech and information.
In 1982, Canada adopted the Access to Information Act -- making it one of the first countries to pass legislation recognizing the right of citizens to access information held by government, and as recently as 2002, Canada ranked among the top 5 most open and transparent countries when it came to respect for freedom of the press.
Fast-forward a decade, and we've become a true north suppressed and disparate -- where unregistered civic demonstrations are inhibited and repressed, rebellious Internet activities are scrutinised and supervised, government scientists are hushed and muzzled, and public information is stalled and mired by bureaucratic firewalls.
In the 2013 World Press Freedom Index -- an evaluation done by Reporters Without Borders on the autonomy of a country's media environment, Canada came in at a paltry 20th, putting us behind liberal-democratic powerhouses such as Namibia, Costa Rica, and the Western Hemisphere's new champion of free media -- Jamaica.
So what the devil is going on?
According to page 8 of the report, this uneasy drop "was due to obstruction of journalists during the so-called 'Maple Spring' student movement and to continuing threats to the confidentiality of journalists' sources and Internet users' personal data, in particular, from the C-30 bill on cyber-crime."
Yet perhaps more distressing than the consistent during Quebec's Maple Spring has been the abrupt confiscation of the right of citizens in the province to spontaneously demonstrate and protest in public spaces -- seen recently at the totalitarian debacle known as the Anti-Police Brutality Protest, where over 250 people were arrested for failing to register with authorities before assembling.
Passed last May by the National Assembly of Quebec in the midst of the student upheaval, Bill 78 requires organizers of assemblies involving 50 or more people to register the details of any demonstration with the police at least eight hours before it begins. Anyone who does not comply with the law faces a fine from $1000 up to $125,000 depending on his or her involvement and leadership in the protest.
Not to be outdone by Quebec's anti-demonstration legislation however, the federal government decided to continue the trend with Bill C-309 -- criminalizing the act of covering one's face during any sort of display of civil disobedience. And as opposed to the customary fine, the bill carries with it a penalty of up to five years in prison.
But don't worry -- it's for our protection.
Speaking of our "protection," Bill C-30, or the Lawful Access Act -- proposed by the Harper government in February of last year, attempted to grant authorities the power to monitor and track the digital activities of all Canadians in real-time.
This internationally-condemned Orwellian "cyber-crime legislation" planned to force service providers to log and surrender browsing information about their customers upon government request as well as permit the remote access to any personal computer in the country -- all without the need of any sort of warrant.
And while Bill C-30 has been tabled for the time being, Bill C-12 -- which similarly authorises the warrantless acquisition of customer information from ISPs, email hosts, and social media sites on a voluntary basis, looks poised to creep in and achieve many of Bill C-30's initial objectives by reducing the need for warrants, and gradually circumnavigating safeguards that protect our personal information online.
Of course we've all had the rhetoric jammed down our throats -- these adjustments to a citizen's right to public assembly, defiant anonymity, and digital privacy are the necessary sacrifices we must be willing to make in order to shelter ourselves from half-heartedly articulated illusory threats such as "terrorism" or "extremism".
But the undemocratic stifling doesn't stop here either. Even our taxpayer-funded government scientists -- the last line of defense against ignorance and uncritical thinking, are increasingly coerced into suppressing unwelcome findings.
According to a report by researchers at the University of Victoria titled Muzzling Civil Servants: A Threat to Democracy, "the federal government has recently made concerted efforts to prevent the media - and through them, the general public - from speaking to government scientists, and this, in turn, impoverishes the public debate on issues of significant national concern."
When Canadian scientists are permitted by their handlers to speak to journalists or international colleagues, they are forced to regurgitate pre-approved party findings that rest neatly within the confines of official government policies -- regardless of what the yields of their research and expert opinions may actually be telling them.
What's even more concerning is that in a recent study by the Center for Law and Democracy -- which classifies the strength and effectiveness of access to information laws in 93 countries, Canada ranked an utterly humiliating 55th, thanks in large part to the bureaucratic red tape that smothers requests for access to public records.
So perhaps it is time for us Canadians to wake up and smell the suppression -- no longer are censorships solely the purview of tin-pot dictators in far away regimes.
These seemingly gradual erosions to the freedoms of assembly, expression and information in Canada are all very real -- just last week, Parliament actually struck down a bill claiming that "public science, basic research and the free and open exchange of scientific information are essential to evidence-based policy-making."
And I have the sinking suspicion that whichever party is in power, these rights will continue to decompose unless the citizenry is willing to vocalize this as a major election issue. After all, even in democracy new governments seldom willingly return rights and freedoms back to the people once in office -- power can be just too enticing.
One day it's the right to spontaneously demonstrate, next it's the right to wear a mask well doing so, then Internet privacy, scientific inquiry, public records, and so on as the vice compressing freedom and civil disobedience slowly tightens on us all.
But then again, this is Canada. That sort of thing could never happen here, right?
Less than a generation ago, Canada was a world leader when it came to the fundamental democratic freedoms of assembly, speech and information.
In 1982, Canada adopted the Access to Information Act -- making it one of the first countries to pass legislation recognizing the right of citizens to access information held by government, and as recently as 2002, Canada ranked among the top 5 most open and transparent countries when it came to respect for freedom of the press.
Fast-forward a decade, and we've become a true north suppressed and disparate -- where unregistered civic demonstrations are inhibited and repressed, rebellious Internet activities are scrutinised and supervised, government scientists are hushed and muzzled, and public information is stalled and mired by bureaucratic firewalls.
In the 2013 World Press Freedom Index -- an evaluation done by Reporters Without Borders on the autonomy of a country's media environment, Canada came in at a paltry 20th, putting us behind liberal-democratic powerhouses such as Namibia, Costa Rica, and the Western Hemisphere's new champion of free media -- Jamaica.
So what the devil is going on?
According to page 8 of the report, this uneasy drop "was due to obstruction of journalists during the so-called 'Maple Spring' student movement and to continuing threats to the confidentiality of journalists' sources and Internet users' personal data, in particular, from the C-30 bill on cyber-crime."
Yet perhaps more distressing than the consistent during Quebec's Maple Spring has been the abrupt confiscation of the right of citizens in the province to spontaneously demonstrate and protest in public spaces -- seen recently at the totalitarian debacle known as the Anti-Police Brutality Protest, where over 250 people were arrested for failing to register with authorities before assembling.
Passed last May by the National Assembly of Quebec in the midst of the student upheaval, Bill 78 requires organizers of assemblies involving 50 or more people to register the details of any demonstration with the police at least eight hours before it begins. Anyone who does not comply with the law faces a fine from $1000 up to $125,000 depending on his or her involvement and leadership in the protest.
Not to be outdone by Quebec's anti-demonstration legislation however, the federal government decided to continue the trend with Bill C-309 -- criminalizing the act of covering one's face during any sort of display of civil disobedience. And as opposed to the customary fine, the bill carries with it a penalty of up to five years in prison.
But don't worry -- it's for our protection.
Speaking of our "protection," Bill C-30, or the Lawful Access Act -- proposed by the Harper government in February of last year, attempted to grant authorities the power to monitor and track the digital activities of all Canadians in real-time.
This internationally-condemned Orwellian "cyber-crime legislation" planned to force service providers to log and surrender browsing information about their customers upon government request as well as permit the remote access to any personal computer in the country -- all without the need of any sort of warrant.
And while Bill C-30 has been tabled for the time being, Bill C-12 -- which similarly authorises the warrantless acquisition of customer information from ISPs, email hosts, and social media sites on a voluntary basis, looks poised to creep in and achieve many of Bill C-30's initial objectives by reducing the need for warrants, and gradually circumnavigating safeguards that protect our personal information online.
Of course we've all had the rhetoric jammed down our throats -- these adjustments to a citizen's right to public assembly, defiant anonymity, and digital privacy are the necessary sacrifices we must be willing to make in order to shelter ourselves from half-heartedly articulated illusory threats such as "terrorism" or "extremism".
But the undemocratic stifling doesn't stop here either. Even our taxpayer-funded government scientists -- the last line of defense against ignorance and uncritical thinking, are increasingly coerced into suppressing unwelcome findings.
According to a report by researchers at the University of Victoria titled Muzzling Civil Servants: A Threat to Democracy, "the federal government has recently made concerted efforts to prevent the media - and through them, the general public - from speaking to government scientists, and this, in turn, impoverishes the public debate on issues of significant national concern."
When Canadian scientists are permitted by their handlers to speak to journalists or international colleagues, they are forced to regurgitate pre-approved party findings that rest neatly within the confines of official government policies -- regardless of what the yields of their research and expert opinions may actually be telling them.
What's even more concerning is that in a recent study by the Center for Law and Democracy -- which classifies the strength and effectiveness of access to information laws in 93 countries, Canada ranked an utterly humiliating 55th, thanks in large part to the bureaucratic red tape that smothers requests for access to public records.
So perhaps it is time for us Canadians to wake up and smell the suppression -- no longer are censorships solely the purview of tin-pot dictators in far away regimes.
These seemingly gradual erosions to the freedoms of assembly, expression and information in Canada are all very real -- just last week, Parliament actually struck down a bill claiming that "public science, basic research and the free and open exchange of scientific information are essential to evidence-based policy-making."
And I have the sinking suspicion that whichever party is in power, these rights will continue to decompose unless the citizenry is willing to vocalize this as a major election issue. After all, even in democracy new governments seldom willingly return rights and freedoms back to the people once in office -- power can be just too enticing.
One day it's the right to spontaneously demonstrate, next it's the right to wear a mask well doing so, then Internet privacy, scientific inquiry, public records, and so on as the vice compressing freedom and civil disobedience slowly tightens on us all.
But then again, this is Canada. That sort of thing could never happen here, right?
Another good article.
I have certain rules I live by ... My First Rule ... I don't believe anything the government tells me ... George Carlin
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
Bill C-60: Tories Quietly Taking Control Of CBC, Group Alleges
The Huffington Post Canada | Posted: 04/30/2013 4:35 pm EDT
The Harper government is quietly seizing greater control of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, while a public advocacy group accuses the Tories of stacking the CBC’s board with political allies.
Bill C-60, the Tories’ budget implementation bill, includes a clause that allows the prime minister’s cabinet to approve salaries, working conditions and collective bargaining positions for the CBC, The Hill Times reports.
The move, buried at the back of the 111-page bill, “appears to contradict a longstanding arm’s-length relationship between the independent CBC and any government in power,” the newspaper said.
The CBC would now be required to get approval from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Treasury Board Committee for any collective bargaining agreement the broadcaster reaches with its employees. The Treasury Board would also have the power to approve or deny pay and benefits for non-unionized employees.
The news comes as public interest group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting issued a statement accusing the Tories of “stacking the [CBC’s] board with Conservative supporters.”
Citing data from Elections Canada, Friends said eight of the board’s 11 current members have donated to the Conservative Party of Canada, which the group saw as a sign the government has taken greater control of the CBC.
The new powers over CBC pay and the heavy presence of Conservative Party donors “will further undermine the CBC’s independence from government,” Friends said.
The group identified only one of the reported donors: Remi Racine, the chair of CBC’s board, who Friends said donated $1,200 to the Conservative Party in 2012 “while sitting on the Board.”
According to the CBC’s website, all current members of the broadcaster's board began serving since the Conservatives took power in 2006.
The budget bill would also extend the same powers over the CBC to three other cultural and scientific agencies: the Canada Council for the Arts, the International Development Research Centre and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
Liberal MP Scott Brison told The Hill Times he was surprised the government would go this far in compromising the independence of the CBC and the three other institutions.
“These Crown agencies represent public broadcasting, culture and scientific research, three areas where the Conservatives have been antagonistic,” Brison said. “We will thoroughly scrutinize actions by this government towards these agencies.”
The CBC’s public mandate has long been questioned in conservative circles, with many criticizing the network for taking taxpayers’ money while competing with private-sector broadcasters for advertising revenue.
Sun News Network has famously championed the cause, as has its parent company, Quebecor, whose CEO, Pierre-Karl Peladeau, has attacked CBC’s $1 billion in public subsidies in 2011.
The CBC fought back, putting out statements declaring that Quebecor had itself received $500 billion in various forms of subsidies from the government in the prior three years. Quebecor demanded the CBC remove the “defamatory” material, but the broadcaster refused.
Most recently, conservative bloggers attacked the CBC over allegations the network was running Liberal Party ads featuring Justin Trudeau while refusing to run Tory attack ads. Some pointed to statements from the CBC that it only airs political ads during elections.
But, as The Huffington Post Canada previously reported, the CBC changed its policy on that in 2009, and now allows political ads during non-election periods.
According to the CBC, the Conservative Party has not approached the network yet to run its current negative ad against Justin Trudeau.
But he's a conservative, they don't waste or "misplace" our money.
It's bullshit how his base ignores this kind of shit.
The whole political process is corrupt ... every politician, every party. I don't/will never get within a mile of voting booth, I refuse to support any of the corrupt bullshitters.
Comments
ya ... but it plays right into their base ... conservative voters eat this shit up like fried chicken and waffles ...
as long as 65% of the country split their votes 4 ways ... it'll be hard to unseat these asshats ...
hell no! ... haha
No actually I'm not falling for any tactics. I don't like Trudeau and that's my own opinion, the liberals put someone in charge of the party that they feel is best able to lead them back in power, not becacause he's necessarily the best candidate but because he's the most like able ... The liberals feel they are the only one who can run the country ... The truth is neither the conservatives or liberals are very good at running the country for the average citizen and that there is my opinion. So don't fucking tell me I'm falling for any conservative or liberal bs.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
I'm sorry for the shitty copy and past, just click the link, it's a much easier read.
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commenta ... llick.html
Conservative anti-terror bill and arrests match up beautifully, don’t they: Mallick
No attack was imminent and the tip was a year old.
How odd. The week after the Boston bombings, the Conservative government had MPs suddenly debating an anti-terror bill that had long been hanging around with its hands in its pockets. The very same day, conveniently, the RCMP arrested two alleged terrorists.
They had a tip from an imam, the cops said. They got it a year ago.
Call me cynical. I’m not, I am hopeful credulity itself, but the anti-terror bill is shameful and the arrests dubious. The police press conference consisted of a dozen white male cops — and a token female — in a variety of uniforms congratulating each other and offering next to no information.
“Let’s get the details in English and in French, it’s how they roll,” said a Fox News guy named Shep. “God love Canada, but they’re not great at the television.” God love Fox, but they’re not great at the journalism.
The attack was not imminent, the RCMP said, but was allegedly “Al Qaeda-sponsored” and had ties to Iran. It was aimed at a Via train route between Toronto and New York.
This seems strange. One could hardly choose a more unobtrusive target than Via trains which spend much time maddeningly stationary anyway. A lawyer for one of the arrested men noted in court the odd coincidence of timing Tuesday, as did NDP defence critic Jack Harris in the House on Monday. What fearful symmetry.
And why would Al Qaeda, Sunni by nature, work with Iran, a Shiite nation? But perhaps that’s just how Iran rolls.
The anti-terror bill, known as the Combating (sic)Terrorism Act is being rushed through its third reading. It is a horrifying bill, just as it was when it passed in 2001, when it was not renewed in 2007 thanks to the Liberal opposition, and when it finally reached the Senate last year.
But now the Conservatives have a majority and this is what they want. As Leslie MacKinnon of CBC News reported, “preventative detention” would mean that any Canadian could be arrested and held for three days on suspicion of terrorist involvement with no charge being laid.
“An investigative hearing” means that someone suspected of knowing about a terrorist plot could be imprisoned for up to a year if they refused to answer questions.
The bill would also make it illegal to leave Canada if you intend to commit an act of terrorism. This is presumably aimed at people going to training camps or meetings. But what it means is that Canadian police may well take the word of foreign governments making wild claims about any Canadian travelling overseas.
Imagine you or me, on vacation, being arrested on those grounds. The question is: Do you trust Stephen Harper and the Conservative government and the RCMP to do the ethical, informed, reasonable thing in your case? Or do you expect them to follow a hard-right ideology, to overreact as the Americans do?
The RCMP is a disgraced police force. Cute as it is when American journalists joke about arrests by scarlet-suited men on horseback, the most recent memory I have of the RCMP is watching them terrify, hood and tape down a young girl on an airplane.
She was the late Ashley Smith. The Smith videos are films of torture by committee, and the torture is being applied by Mounties and guards.
I do not trust them, just as I no longer trust Toronto police after the G20 debacle and do not trust a Harper majority government. Its calling card is to warn us non-stop of “Muslim terrorists,” which might not offend were this government neutral on religion.
It is not. Radio Canada reports that Ottawa has just given $20 million of infrastructure spending to 13 Christian universities, seminaries and colleges, from Evangelical to Baptist to Mennonite. These schools are taking our tax dollars even though they illegally prohibit gay relationships.
It isn’t a government’s role to build up one religion against another. It would be uncivilized. Equally, the terror bill is too draconian for Canada. It is more suited to a panicked U.S., but yes, it will pass because the Conservatives have a majority.
It will be a shameful day.
So as for this bill being introduced on Monday the same day they made 2 arrest ... it's does strike me as odd ... and nothing surprises me with politicians anymore.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_fox_news_n ... 2/?cKYCfab
Please, please don't let this happen.
None of them report the news anymore ...
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
obviously it's not perfect ... but what makes you think trudeau would not be a good pm? ... is it his ideology? ... is it his connection to some special interests or corporations? ... or is it simply he is part of a system you've already abandoned?
He's part of the same old system ... I've stated before that federally the libs and cons have been running the show forever and this country is going backwards instead of forward...imo.
As far as Canadians being dumbed down ... I truly believe that ... I just have to look at the area I live in ... 1000's of good manufacturing jobs have been replaced with $11-$13 jobs and they continue to vote libs, cons or NDP ... this area battered with high unemployment and low paying jobs at least send a message and vote green, start a movement ... but for the life of me their being screwed and don't even realize it or want to get their collective heads out of their ass's.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
i hear ya and it's not that i necessarily disagree ... but when i compare our political landscape vs. that of say the US ... it's like a thousand times better ... if i look at the current leaders - only Harper stands out as someone who is tied to an agenda that isn't tied to Canadians ... i think the old school liberals are on the way out and although i probably still wouldn't vote for him ... i do think that it's a move in the positive direction ...
at the end of the day - we can only hope for honest and transparent governance ... some of the problems our country has isn't necessarily tied to the politics but like you said - people are stupid ... if everyone continues to only look out for themselves - it's not possible to create a country that works for the majority ...
all i know is i'm so glad my choices here aren't people like donald trump, rand paul, michelle bachman and the likes ...
So true ... Just wish people would wake up ... It's time for some change, which I don't see happening anytime.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013 ... ained.html
OTTAWA—The federal government can’t account for how it spent more than $3 billion earmarked for anti-terror initiatives, the auditor general says.
In a report released Tuesday, Michael Ferguson looked at Canada’s security spending in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and discovered that the government was unable to explain how it spent almost a quarter of the cash.
The audit examined Ottawa’s “public security and anti-terrorism” program that was launched in late 2001 with the goal of deterring terrorism. The program had broad goals and included spending on air security, emergency preparedness, intelligence and policing and border infrastructure.
In all, some $12.9 billion was earmarked for the initiative. However, departments and agencies reported spending just $9.8 billion between 2001 and 2009, leaving $3.1 billion unaccounted for, Ferguson writes in his audit report.
However, officials chalk up the discrepancy to lax bookkeeping. The audit suggests several scenarios for what may have happened: the funding may have lapsed and never been spent; or it may have been spent on anti-terror efforts but reported as other program spending; or it may have been spent on program unrelated to security.
Doh!
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013 ... avers.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013 ... rowth.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013 ... crecy.html
Basically our impending financial doom.
But in all seriousness he can explain it much better than me. It's a long read but worth it.
Good article ... Thanks for posting
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
The Slow and Painful Death of Freedom in Canada
Posted: 04/29/2013 8:13 am
Less than a generation ago, Canada was a world leader when it came to the fundamental democratic freedoms of assembly, speech and information.
In 1982, Canada adopted the Access to Information Act -- making it one of the first countries to pass legislation recognizing the right of citizens to access information held by government, and as recently as 2002, Canada ranked among the top 5 most open and transparent countries when it came to respect for freedom of the press.
Fast-forward a decade, and we've become a true north suppressed and disparate -- where unregistered civic demonstrations are inhibited and repressed, rebellious Internet activities are scrutinised and supervised, government scientists are hushed and muzzled, and public information is stalled and mired by bureaucratic firewalls.
In the 2013 World Press Freedom Index -- an evaluation done by Reporters Without Borders on the autonomy of a country's media environment, Canada came in at a paltry 20th, putting us behind liberal-democratic powerhouses such as Namibia, Costa Rica, and the Western Hemisphere's new champion of free media -- Jamaica.
So what the devil is going on?
According to page 8 of the report, this uneasy drop "was due to obstruction of journalists during the so-called 'Maple Spring' student movement and to continuing threats to the confidentiality of journalists' sources and Internet users' personal data, in particular, from the C-30 bill on cyber-crime."
Yet perhaps more distressing than the consistent during Quebec's Maple Spring has been the abrupt confiscation of the right of citizens in the province to spontaneously demonstrate and protest in public spaces -- seen recently at the totalitarian debacle known as the Anti-Police Brutality Protest, where over 250 people were arrested for failing to register with authorities before assembling.
Passed last May by the National Assembly of Quebec in the midst of the student upheaval, Bill 78 requires organizers of assemblies involving 50 or more people to register the details of any demonstration with the police at least eight hours before it begins. Anyone who does not comply with the law faces a fine from $1000 up to $125,000 depending on his or her involvement and leadership in the protest.
Not to be outdone by Quebec's anti-demonstration legislation however, the federal government decided to continue the trend with Bill C-309 -- criminalizing the act of covering one's face during any sort of display of civil disobedience. And as opposed to the customary fine, the bill carries with it a penalty of up to five years in prison.
But don't worry -- it's for our protection.
Speaking of our "protection," Bill C-30, or the Lawful Access Act -- proposed by the Harper government in February of last year, attempted to grant authorities the power to monitor and track the digital activities of all Canadians in real-time.
This internationally-condemned Orwellian "cyber-crime legislation" planned to force service providers to log and surrender browsing information about their customers upon government request as well as permit the remote access to any personal computer in the country -- all without the need of any sort of warrant.
And while Bill C-30 has been tabled for the time being, Bill C-12 -- which similarly authorises the warrantless acquisition of customer information from ISPs, email hosts, and social media sites on a voluntary basis, looks poised to creep in and achieve many of Bill C-30's initial objectives by reducing the need for warrants, and gradually circumnavigating safeguards that protect our personal information online.
Of course we've all had the rhetoric jammed down our throats -- these adjustments to a citizen's right to public assembly, defiant anonymity, and digital privacy are the necessary sacrifices we must be willing to make in order to shelter ourselves from half-heartedly articulated illusory threats such as "terrorism" or "extremism".
But the undemocratic stifling doesn't stop here either. Even our taxpayer-funded government scientists -- the last line of defense against ignorance and uncritical thinking, are increasingly coerced into suppressing unwelcome findings.
According to a report by researchers at the University of Victoria titled Muzzling Civil Servants: A Threat to Democracy, "the federal government has recently made concerted efforts to prevent the media - and through them, the general public - from speaking to government scientists, and this, in turn, impoverishes the public debate on issues of significant national concern."
When Canadian scientists are permitted by their handlers to speak to journalists or international colleagues, they are forced to regurgitate pre-approved party findings that rest neatly within the confines of official government policies -- regardless of what the yields of their research and expert opinions may actually be telling them.
What's even more concerning is that in a recent study by the Center for Law and Democracy -- which classifies the strength and effectiveness of access to information laws in 93 countries, Canada ranked an utterly humiliating 55th, thanks in large part to the bureaucratic red tape that smothers requests for access to public records.
So perhaps it is time for us Canadians to wake up and smell the suppression -- no longer are censorships solely the purview of tin-pot dictators in far away regimes.
These seemingly gradual erosions to the freedoms of assembly, expression and information in Canada are all very real -- just last week, Parliament actually struck down a bill claiming that "public science, basic research and the free and open exchange of scientific information are essential to evidence-based policy-making."
And I have the sinking suspicion that whichever party is in power, these rights will continue to decompose unless the citizenry is willing to vocalize this as a major election issue. After all, even in democracy new governments seldom willingly return rights and freedoms back to the people once in office -- power can be just too enticing.
One day it's the right to spontaneously demonstrate, next it's the right to wear a mask well doing so, then Internet privacy, scientific inquiry, public records, and so on as the vice compressing freedom and civil disobedience slowly tightens on us all.
But then again, this is Canada. That sort of thing could never happen here, right?
Glad you enjoyed it.
Another good article.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
But he's a conservative, they don't waste or "misplace" our money.
It's bullshit how his base ignores this kind of shit.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/04/30 ... 87821.html
Bill C-60: Tories Quietly Taking Control Of CBC, Group Alleges
The Huffington Post Canada | Posted: 04/30/2013 4:35 pm EDT
The Harper government is quietly seizing greater control of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, while a public advocacy group accuses the Tories of stacking the CBC’s board with political allies.
Bill C-60, the Tories’ budget implementation bill, includes a clause that allows the prime minister’s cabinet to approve salaries, working conditions and collective bargaining positions for the CBC, The Hill Times reports.
The move, buried at the back of the 111-page bill, “appears to contradict a longstanding arm’s-length relationship between the independent CBC and any government in power,” the newspaper said.
The CBC would now be required to get approval from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Treasury Board Committee for any collective bargaining agreement the broadcaster reaches with its employees. The Treasury Board would also have the power to approve or deny pay and benefits for non-unionized employees.
The news comes as public interest group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting issued a statement accusing the Tories of “stacking the [CBC’s] board with Conservative supporters.”
Citing data from Elections Canada, Friends said eight of the board’s 11 current members have donated to the Conservative Party of Canada, which the group saw as a sign the government has taken greater control of the CBC.
The new powers over CBC pay and the heavy presence of Conservative Party donors “will further undermine the CBC’s independence from government,” Friends said.
The group identified only one of the reported donors: Remi Racine, the chair of CBC’s board, who Friends said donated $1,200 to the Conservative Party in 2012 “while sitting on the Board.”
According to the CBC’s website, all current members of the broadcaster's board began serving since the Conservatives took power in 2006.
The budget bill would also extend the same powers over the CBC to three other cultural and scientific agencies: the Canada Council for the Arts, the International Development Research Centre and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
Liberal MP Scott Brison told The Hill Times he was surprised the government would go this far in compromising the independence of the CBC and the three other institutions.
“These Crown agencies represent public broadcasting, culture and scientific research, three areas where the Conservatives have been antagonistic,” Brison said. “We will thoroughly scrutinize actions by this government towards these agencies.”
The CBC’s public mandate has long been questioned in conservative circles, with many criticizing the network for taking taxpayers’ money while competing with private-sector broadcasters for advertising revenue.
Sun News Network has famously championed the cause, as has its parent company, Quebecor, whose CEO, Pierre-Karl Peladeau, has attacked CBC’s $1 billion in public subsidies in 2011.
The CBC fought back, putting out statements declaring that Quebecor had itself received $500 billion in various forms of subsidies from the government in the prior three years. Quebecor demanded the CBC remove the “defamatory” material, but the broadcaster refused.
Most recently, conservative bloggers attacked the CBC over allegations the network was running Liberal Party ads featuring Justin Trudeau while refusing to run Tory attack ads. Some pointed to statements from the CBC that it only airs political ads during elections.
But, as The Huffington Post Canada previously reported, the CBC changed its policy on that in 2009, and now allows political ads during non-election periods.
According to the CBC, the Conservative Party has not approached the network yet to run its current negative ad against Justin Trudeau.
The whole political process is corrupt ... every politician, every party. I don't/will never get within a mile of voting booth, I refuse to support any of the corrupt bullshitters.
The Owners Of The Country
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jQT7_rVxAE
Voting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIraCchPDhk
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon