Monthly Archives: November 2010

Letter to Glenn Thibeault re Bill C-36, an act respecting consumer product safety

Thibeault.

I was listening to question period today 26th November 2010 and was absolutely blown aware by the ignorance of what you said.

One thing is clear to me and that is that you have not read this Bill C-36, and that you have not talked to your constituents about all the ramifications of this Bill.

You, it would appear, along with all opposition MPs have been terrified into agreeing with it simply because of it’s Election type name. Imagine trying to explain why you would vote against such a bill…shamefull! Yet if you had read it you would have had to ask your constituents if they really wanted you to surrender the right of our parliament to make regulations, or even the right to approve of those the Minister of Health will be instructed by the PM to bring in from foreign governments, bypassing parliament. You will be hard pressed when the people realise what you have done to even justify the reason for parliament anyway, because we will be regulated from overseas, and you can bet that Monsanto will have no desire to pay your pension.

You have heard all this before from both myself and many many others and yet you chose to ignore us and go ahead with this treasonous Bill C-36, and it is on your head along with all the other MPs who bowed in fear to Harper instead of standing up for the Canadian people and also Canada and saying “No. We want safe products but not like this Harper.”

I remind you of what you said in question period:

Mr. Glenn Thibeault (Sudbury, NDP):
Mr. Speaker, across North America today marks Black Friday, the beginning of the holiday shopping season. Bill C-36, Canada’s updated product safety legislation, passed by the House with all-party support, is being held hostage in the Senate for a second time in the past 14 months. Canadians need up to date product safety legislation now. Our children should not be opening toys this Christmas laced with cadmium.
Will the Senate again be obstructionist and act in contravention of the House, or will it respect the will of the House and pass Bill C-36 before the holidays?
[Table of Contents] Mr. Colin Carrie (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, Canadians should have confidence in the consumer products that they buy and the best way to do that and to ensure that countries and their importers comply is to pass our Canadian consumer product safety bill, Bill C-36. We are eagerly awaiting the passage of the bill in the Senate and we hope this time around the Liberal senators will not hold it up.
[Table of Contents] Mr. Glenn Thibeault (Sudbury, NDP):
Mr. Speaker, it is not the colour of the unelected senators’ tie, it is whether they will respect the will of the House.
The protection of our children should be paramount to the government. Parents have a right to know that the products they are giving their children are safe and toxin free. This is why the government needs to ensure that Bill C-36 is passed before Christmas.
Will the government show some leadership and tell its unelected bagmen in the Senate to adopt this important legislation for the safety of our children?
[Table of Contents] Mr. Tom Lukiwski (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, I find it absolutely astonishing that the NDP, on one hand, would complain about the Senate of Canada and then, on the other hand, not agree to support our legislation to reform the Senate.
We have been trying to get the NDP and all opposition parties to support our reforms to the Senate for many months. I cannot find anything more hypocritical than a member of the NDP saying, on the one hand, that the Senate is bad and yet he will not try to make it good.

We can ignore the last answer because it is hardly worthy of a petulant child never mind a parliamentary secretary, but I would suggest that if the ammendments made by the chamber of sober second thought 11 months ago were incorporated by the government from the old prorogued Bill C-6 to the current Bill C-36, they must have had some merit. I suspect you were not even aware that they had been so incorporated and thus my questions to you are:

Why did the senators have to make those ammendments last year?
Why was the Bill sent to them in an unread, uncritised form last year – and this year too for that matter?
Why are you critising them for doing what you should have done in the first place?
Are you suggesting that they should blindly accept everything you send them unchecked and unread?
Are you perhaps a little jealous of the fact that they can read Bills and try to make them better for Canadians, including your constituents, whilst you are stuck with your leader’s dictates.

Bill C-36 passed through your House of Comomons committee a few short days ago in 2 hours and 50 minutes including clause by clause, which means that for the second time all members of the House of Comnmons were indifferent to what the bill actually says. Fear not Thibeault, the Harper people on the Senate committee are refusing to even consider anything at all, so it will get through there in minimum time too. Clause by clause is almost done now and I am sure the regulations are just waiting in the wings for Royal Assent, and publishing in the Gazette
The stench of fear emmanating from the House of Commons today is almost palpable, as you in the opposition cower and grovel, not what you were elected to do. This is a minority Reform / Alliance coalition which has the rest of you scared of your shadows, and just like the Republicans to the south of us they are running rings around you with lies, deceit and misdirections, arrogance and indifference. You of the opposition just let them do it.

This falsely named bill is not necessary inspite of what you claim, and will do absolutely nothing to hasten recalls certainly not in time for Christmas, though Codex Alimentarious may be with us by then thanks to you, and maybe just before another proroging of parliament to make sure it is well established, along with imported regulations, before parliament resumes some time next year.

Perhaps due diligence on your part will protect your children this christmas.

Read the Bill just once and maybe you will see for yourself because I am tired of pointing out the sections to you and your fellow MPs to no avail.

Your indignation rings very hollow Thibeault, and you have made me mad.

Jeremy Arney
CAP candidate for SGI in 2008 and proud of my desire to represent Canadians to Parliament, not Parliament to Canadians.

Another couple of ways we could go

Maybe to go another way?

I have been wondering what is really wrong with our system of politics here in Canada, and it leads me to realize some very simple truths, probably the biggest of which is that:

Today’s government is not for the people and hasn’t been for some years now.

Oh I know there are those who say I am just supporting some sort of corporate takeover conspiracy, and maybe they are right, but let’s really look at what has gone wrong.

There was a time when members of the House of Parliament or the Provincial Legislature were representatives of the people of their ridings , a throw back to the “good old days” of England when they represented the landowners who spoke for their surfs…! Far from ideal but for that time it worked as well as any system had.

Even the American system with it’s checks and balances for the three levels of government, Administration, Congress and Judiciary was a great idea for a republic.

So again what happened?

Groups of elected people (mostly men at that time- in fact probably all men) got together for each other’s ideas to be presented and accepted by the level of government, simply put,
“ I like this, that, your idea and will support you. Will you also support my idea?”
It seemed that this lead to the eventual formation of like minded getting together to make life easier than canvassing every other member, and thus the development of parties that started the wielding of power as each party sought to have the final say.
Naturally this had to spread to the voting public so that each party could come up with a proposal or “platform” from which the voters were asked to choose. Of course by then the concept of party leaders was established and we were on the slippery slope to where we are today where one man controls the lives of every man woman and child in Canada, even if he does not have the majority of Canadian behind him. Nor does it even matter if he chooses to promote the benefits of corporations over the people, he is the supreme “God” of Canada as he can make and break the rules with impunity, and thumb his nose at the people because he really only needs them at an election time of his choosing.

How far we have come from:

Our self governing Dominions are united by the ties of a common allegiance to the Crown: but the Crown has become the symbol of the people’s sovereignty.
According to our concept and practice of government, the King reigns to execute the will of the people who rule. The strength of the Empire rests upon the eternal foundation of liberty expressed in the ideal and consummation of autonomous self-government which is vested in the people of the self-governing Dominions as of right and not of grace. – Sir Robert Borden. 29th December 1914

Obviously in his day it was the King and now it is the Queen, and her present representative described it this way:

Our executive is the Queen, who doesn’t live here. Her representative is the Governor General, who is an appointed buddy of the Prime Minister.
– Stephen Harper June 1997

In an address to the Council for National Policy (an American republican group) at which he also said:

“Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worse sense of the term, and very proud of it”.

The History of the party system in Canada shows that the system only works for the country as a whole when the interests of the people are the same interests of the ruling party or the oposition parties. Our current government is a prime example of what can happen when those interests are diametrically opposite to each other.

So is there a solution?

Yes there are two that immediately c0me to mind.

One is the Single Transferable Vote used in some other countries and retained for instance in Ireland although the politicians there wish to get rid of it. This is relatively cumbersome and like all voting today, subject to the ability of certain interests to manipulate the outcome in the voting machines.

The other I find much more interesting.

Abolish all party politics.

Yes that’s right no parties at all.
No pre-ordained leader for whom to vote regardless of the quality of the local candidate.
No overall platform, just the constituents and their candidates who wish to represent them.
Now we are getting to the quality of the candidates and away from the lying ability of the leader of some party or another.
So you ask what then when the members are elected what happens?
All members of the House of Commons elect from their fellow members 15 members to head up the various cabinet posts. There are no party lines and no need for shadow ministers or critics as those ministers would be reporting directly to the House of Commons, not just blindly and obediently following the PM’s wishes.

Those 15 members select from the remaining members two person,

One as Speaker of the House, and

One as Speaker for Canada, that would be the Prime Minister although he or she would not have a ministry (no change there) but would represent Canada and her people to the world through the decisions of the ministers with the House of Commons members’ approval. Each event the prime minister attended would be with the minister responsible for that event. In the event of weddings, state funerals etc., he would be accompanied by the governor general. Another useless position? Maybe, but a certain level of pomp and ceremony is good.
In the event that a minister or even the “Prime Minister” lost the confidence of the House he could be replaced by a simple vote in the House.

This same system should and could also apply to all provinces, but with a smaller cabinet in the various legislatures.

If we are to return to the Canadian People having a say in the way our Government works then we must have the control to be able to stop the government when they want to do anything against our wishes.

Simple question…Whose country is it?

I think it belongs to the people – all the people not just a few.

To whom does it belong now?

Harper as PM, and his corporate buddies.

I welcome improvements to the idea.

Jeremy Arney

Letter to Senator Dellaire on Remembrance Day

Honourable Senator Dellaire,

I thank you for your e-mail with those comments about Canada and her soldiers, past and present, with the video of Mr Ignatieff’s speech in the House.

I no longer go to a cenotaph unless there are veterans from a local Vet’s hospital who wish to be pushed there in a wheel chair, and in the last few years there are very few who wish to do that as their new hospital has a warm chapel and a large overflow area.

A few years ago I realised that the ceremony was not so much a memorial as a celebration of the act of war and dying performed by those who sent the men and women to die. The Military Chaplain compared those at Vimy Ridge with those in Afghanistan doing their duty to support a commercial war being waged by some corporate entities who were not invited to come or to help with a problem the locals did not consider they had, and that comparison did not and does not sit well with me.

Terrorism is created by reaction to terrositic attacks by another in the name of greed or aggrandisement usually disguised as trade protection or resources theft.

What I do instead is go to a high place in Beacon Hill Park in Victoria BC where there is a huge Canadian Flag flying at half mast on November 11th. There are benches there in the open or under trees, and I can hear the guns performing their salute. There I think of my two uncles who died in WW2, and those of my friends who were killed in Korea, Malaya, or even Ireland. I think of those on the “other side” who believed that they too were fighting to defend their country and way of life. I grieve for them all under the Beacon Hill Park trees and hate the waste of human beings both military and civilians who died for a cause not of their making and not for their benefit nor for the benefit of their loved ones.

As young men at school in England we were taught to fight so we would be ready for the armed forces, and little time was given to the concept of talking to and trying to understand our fellow human beings. I am an old man warrior, brother to a real soldier, and with my “pen” I will battle evil just as those soldiers over the centuries believed they were doing, little realising that the same evil people were bankrolling both sets of armies for their own benefit and financial gain.

That evil, based not so much on religious beliefs but on monetary gain is what we have to face today, more so than at any time in our present civilisation. The faceless ones who control governments, who create hatred based on colour, sex and religion, who care not for human life at all. Regretfully those we elect in all supposedly democratic countries are subdued by these faceless entities, and forced to obey their will, not the will of those who elect and pay them. Such evil people who threaten not the warrior but the warrior’s children simply to have a bigger bottom line.

This is not news to you as you are a wise man with years of experience in many fields.

I grieve not only for those whose noble sacrifices were in vain, but also for those young people growing up tomorrow who will not know freedom, who will not know how incredible the world was just a few short years ago.
The next generation of young who may never see a whale, an eagle or a polar bear or maybe even a blue sky, a sunset, or a sunrise.
Tomorrow’s young who will be so toxified by pharmaceutical drugs and fake food that they will not be able to give me great grandchildren.

This is where we are going now and how did we forget the unselfish deeds of those men and women we sacrificed and then said we would never forget? We forgot because there are now Remembrance Day sales in stores open on what is supposed to be a Day of Remembrance, not a day of commercial profit sales.

“Lest we forget” is a catchy phrase which means less and less each year, and I mourn for those so betrayed by that.

Respectfully,
Jeremy Arney

A bit of a rant

On the 26th of October 2010, after 2 hours and 50 minutes of HESA Committee meetings – they could not be called hearings except by the mentally impaired – and at a cost of $15,500 or $91 a minute – a few cosmetic but immaterial amendments were proposed by the Reform / Alliance team simply to keep some Liberal Senators happy, were accepted, naturally, and the clause by clause was completed. This was at about 11.13 am.

The report was presented to the House of Commons on 28th October 2010.

The first order of the day on the 29th was the third reading of the Bill and right after Question Period it was bought back again and all done, by somewhere close to 1.30 pm.

Now it is up to the Reform / Alliance coalition loaded Senate to rubber stamp it.

King Harper and his Northern Fairy have given the gift to Canada which will just keep on giving and giving us regulation after regulation from overseas.

It was done so fast that I missed it and wasted valuable time writing meaningless letters to the equally traitorous Iggy and Jacko over the weekend, and I am really pissed at them all.

It is absolutely incredible to me that not one of the 308 MPs has even bothered to answer my question about overseas regulations being enabled by this Bill C-36 and the intended Act. The closest was the pathetic Minister of Justice providing excuses for his incompetence, and blaming it on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms !

As Minister of Justice, I am required under section 4.1 of the Department of Justice Act to report any inconsistencies with the Charter to the House of Commons. I would like to assure you that this process is completed for all tabled bills, including Bill C-6. It should be noted, however, that the rights and freedoms guaranteed under the Charter are not absolute and are subject to limitations under section 1 of the Charter, including reasonable limits prescribed by law that are demonstrably justifiable in a free and democratic society.

My bold

Can someone tell me how something guaranteed can not be? Either the Charter is a meaningless piece of paper or the Min of Justice is crazy. After all if it is meaningless why quote from it, and if it is valid then obey it. Simple enough even for him I would have thought. Perhaps he hadn’t received clear enough instructions from the PMO.

I wish there was a mainstream media in this country that was independent enough and interested enough to let Canadians know what is happening to them.

Stop and think about it for a moment.

We have been rejected as too inadequate on the world stage to be part of the UN Security Council, and thank you for that because we are enough of a hindrance to the world already.
We have torpedoed the Copenhagen climate change meeting; we have destroyed thousands of acres all over the world with our rotten mining practices, destroying families and communities in the process. We have a government backed and protected tar sands which is a blight on the planet. We have fracturing of shale taking place, and our water supply is being ruined for power, copper, gold and uranium to help kill families overseas. If ever there was a country which deserved to not make it to the Security council it is Canada. I am not proud of that, I am disgusted.

Our banks require our armed forces to be there to keep them safe whilst they rape the local people and governments of third world countries which have something we want, all for the sake of the bottom line in some corporation based in Canada but which banks in an offshore non taxation country. So much for the role of peacekeeping when it is not to protect the local people but rather Canadian Mining corporations and banks. We call these free trade deals. Hah, free for whom?

At the G6 and G20 meetings we refused to allow what most of the other members wanted on the agenda, we refused to allow the concept of help to pregnant women, because it does not fit with Harper’s ideological christianity, but it does with the Canadian people as a whole. We spent more money on security alone than any other country has spent on the whole event, simply because we are becoming a hated country in the eyes of the world.

We refuse to recognise the rights of aboriginal peoples or even the rights for everyone to have water.

For Harper, and thus unfortunately from the world view of Canada, Israel can do no wrong and all Muslim countries are not to be trusted. Now what kind of a Canadian ideology is that? Is that what we are being required to do at home now too, hate the Muslims and tell the Israelis that they are wonderful no matter how murderous they are? Harper makes the rules so I suppose so. The CPCCA will soon get him to make it law that any words of dissent against Israel will be a hate crime. Our useless and pathetic opposition will allow it to pass too.

It seems likely that Harper’s bosses, the Republicans, will gain control of the US House of Representatives tomorrow, and that will embolden his highness to step up the pressure on the necks of we the Canadian people.

Why are we not buying the Russian fighter which is already flying now? Why wait for the inferior and very expensive US model? Obviously we need it for something Harper has in mind – like attacking Iran for Uncle Sam, ‘cause Uncle Sam’s too tied up and busy to do it – so let’s get with it and get the Russian plane. I am sure if you asked them they would be happy to put the manuals and switch nameplates in French and anglais.
Hey if we talk nicely to them, they might swap some for asbestos!

We are developing into such a police state and soo fast that most people are not aware of what is happening. Why in spite of  billion dollar price tag are vandals allowed to destroy property in Toronto and peaceful demonstrators and singers of the national anthem are herded into a tight square, beaten up, arrested and thrown into jail? Why are the police now arrestors, judges and jury on the roads of BC.

Why are jails being built for the perpetrators of unknown crimes…come on people , I will probably be in one of them, because I refuse to lie down quietly and be a good little old man. That will be the unknown crime I’ll bet. Dissent. Just disappear to that place north of Fort Nelson.

So if my blog goes quiet for too long that is probably where you will find me, just in time for that pagan holiday now called christmas.

I am not a happy camper today, maybe tomorrow I will have recovered my sense of humour after I have spent some time with my two grandchildren, who help me see things more clearly. But for now I am mad as hell.

Jeremy Arney