Category Archives: Uncategorized

9-11 to civil disobedience

A couple of years ago I was in the UK, and I asked a military man I have known for many many years what he really thought about the events that happened in the USA and that we now refer to as 9-11.

Without much hesitation he said that the attacks were carried out by a bunch of cowardly thugs, acting on some misconceived religious beliefs.

So I then asked him if he would be willing to listen to what I had to say and ask and give me some purely military answers and he replied after some though that he could and would.

What I said was something like this:

OK thanks, so now let’s take what we were told almost immediately after the attacks and that is that 14 people were responsible for the actual acts of the day. There were reportedly 4 planes involved which means three and a half people per plane which is odd but let’s not quibble about that. Two of those planes with 7 people in charge hit two buildings in New York killing approximately 3,000 people.

So looking at it purely from a military view point would you consider that 7 people taking out 3,000 with equipment belonging to Americans was a success?

After looking at me for a minute or two he eventually agreed that it was very acceptable odds indeed.

So I then went on to to say, Ok so then when you add in the complete destruction of three buildings as well, and the resulting damage to the psyche of the USA it could be argued that it was a huge military success carried out by 7 people.

He was now lo0oking at me strangely but reluctantly this time and then more enthusiastically as he agreed that it was a fantastic achievement militarily. All that damage by just 7 people!

So I then said that in my mind it was not a success because the buildings should had held up to 20, 000 people each at that time of day and if the planes had hit at the twentieth floor instead of where they did the death toll could have been between 30 – 40,ooo instead of just 3,000. It is also amazing in that not one Israeli who normally worked in those buildings showed up for work that day.

But they couldn’t have got to the twentieth floor was all he could bleat.

Ah I said why not? Because here is where we have to consider the other two planes.

One is claimed to have performed a maneuver that 95% of commercial pilots who fly those planes said they could not do (and the other 5% said was impossible) and then fly a 120 foot wingspan plane between two poles 90 feet apart which would have either broken the wings or the poles would have been smashed flat ( they are still standing whilst we talk) and then flew into the pentagon, without the resulting fire one would expect from burning aviation fuel, not to mention the plane wreckage and passengers’ bodies left behind.

Before we get to the fourth plane lets us look at this too, we saw over and over and over again the two planes flying into those two buildings in New York and the falling of those towers from multiple angles, (not I might add building “ seven” which most people in the world are unaware also collapsed that day within hours from collateral damage!) and yet at a building which has more cameras per square foot inside and out than any other building in the USA and maybe the world, we did not get even a glimpse of a real passenger plane approaching or flying into the Pentagon. So if you can believe that one of the people flying that plane could have done that then the twentieth floor of the two trade centre buildings would be child’s play.

About building Seven, the BBC reported that it had collapsed and at what time and yet over the shoulder of that poor misinformed woman reporter, for all the world to see, the building was still standing and not even smoking that much!

To the fourth plane, the one they made a movie about just to get Hollywood in on the act, was supposed to be heading for the White House but was actually shot down by the Navy so they claim, and again there was no wreckage, just a big hole in the ground without any plane wreckage or bodies for the local coroners to remove, not even a trace of the 3.5 people who supposedly hijacked it.

What about that I asked my military friend. He was looking rather sick at this point and gazed pityingly at me as I smiled at him. He just walked away and has spoken very little to me since. Too bad because I believe he is a good man at heart.

He was ex military when this discussion took place.

So the point here is that since then we have been lied to by the presidents of the USA, the UN, the prime minister of Canada and the heads of the European countries, and of course the media so often that we just seem to accept what they say.

Who was it who said “If you tell a lie often enough it becomes accepted as the truth”.

Weapons of mass destruction were never found in Iraq and how many millions died over what G W Bush considered a joke?

Bin Laden was supposedly killed a few weeks ago, conveniently at a time when lies were being spread about Gaddafi slaughtering thousands of his people.

There is not one shred of evidence that this has or is happening, yet it is lied about in the US Congress, the UN, in our Senate in the throne Speech a few days ago, and none of the media point this out. Al Jazeera (English) has interviews of Libyans asking “why would we want to get rid a man who has done so much for us?’ But Fox news and the Sun and yes the BBC and CBC and ITV and CTV in fact all of them fall all over themselves to further the lie. The printed media is just as bad.

A young page Brigette DePape objecting in the throne speech in the Canadian Senate to what Harper is doing and is going to do is more newsworthy than the truth about Libya. Actually she is, because it is our youth here in Canada who are beginning to say no to the future they see Harper bringing to Canada.. That young woman said we need an “arab spring” here in Canada and she is right. I will stand beside her if the occasion should arise.

I have been saying for months that the only choice we will soon have is mass civil disobedience, because our needs are not important to those who are employed by us to work for us and who think they rule the country. In fact I suppose that more than any other man in our history Harper really does think this. He controls the House of Commons, the speaker of same, the Senate, the Supreme Court, The Governor General, the money to the provinces and therefore the provinces, and he has had this desire for years to change Canada into a corporately controlled wasteland.

Supposedly he has 5 years to do it, yes I know he passed a law saying every 4 years but that’s all bs anyway he’s only broken it twice so far, and what’s to stop him extending it to 20 years or more with the power he has at his command now?

But I get ahead of myself because I keep forgetting that he wants Canada to be part of the USA.

To the 40% of the 60% who voted Harper in, I just say on behalf of my children and grandchildren, thank you for what you have done to their future, and I hope you all live long enough to see what he will do with what you gave him.

Jeremy Arney

Good luck to Canada on May 2nd 2011

Good luck to us all on Monday 2nd May 2011.

This is a date which may well go down as the end of the end of Canada should we be foolish enough to reelect this man Harper with a CPC majority.

Is that saying too much? No I don’t think so as the signs are very clear that what Harper says is not what Harper does. What he has done speaks volumes of his desire to destroy Canadian sovereignty in favour of international corporations, and as soon as possible be swallowed into their world government.

It appears that the largest support that Harper has is from old foggies such as I  and let’s face it we are in the majority of voters at this time and growing.

I saw a statistic somewhere that 74% of people over 55 support Harper, and I have to wonder why. We are much better educated than our children of today simply because we have been around the block, and we should be able to read the read the signs.

I can only assume that so many seniors are thinking nostalgically of Diefenbaker and Mulroney, both whom could be said to be vastly superior to this current man.

The Dief gave us the Bill of Rights because he said we would need it and he was right, he also destroyed the Arrow aeroplane, and I mean completely destroyed it.
Mulroney insisted on the FTA and thus started the business of giving Canada to the USA, and running up huge debts in doing so.

So the nostalgia, if that is the cause, is somewhat misplaced.

Do they think their investments that are allowing them to maintain their life styles will go bad if anyone but Harper is in charge?
Hard to say if that’s the reason, but let’s face it if Harper has his way all Canada will be sold to any company which wants to buy, prior to relying on the handouts from USA and Europe. Besides with the plummeting value of the US dollar and the new perimeter deal we could see ourselves assuming a chunk of the US debt as part of Harper’s harmonization deal. We have enough problems of our own without taking on theirs as well.

Do the old folk think that our current position in the eyes of the world is an improvement?

If so what do they want us to be?

At this time Canada is against any form of efforts towards climate change; we are withdrawing our help to those countries which have been relying in us for years, instead of altering that help to make them more self-sufficient; we are intolerant towards women’s rights world wide and even the rights of all to water we do not support. and worst of all we are becoming warmongers and supporting unconditionally the two worst terrorist countries in the world, maybe three if you include the UK. There is now news of open talk about troops into Libya to back up the CIA, SAS and whatever backed ‘rebels’ after the killing of Gadhafi’s son and grandchildren by “courageous” bombers. All for the IMF and big Oil. We can be really proud of our part in this can’t we ! Other NATO countries are questioning what is going on but not Harper. I feel sick when I think of what we have become under this man. Unfortunately the Libs and NDP seem to agree with him on Libya.

I do not.

Is it because Harper rarely has a hair out of place, only smiles when it suits him or he needs something, has extreme views on religion and life styles and is intolerant of anyone who does not share those views?

Who knows but I would love to have the answer.

Come on people, we have a responsibility to our children and grandchildren to give them a chance to fix what we have wrecked. Giving Harper the chance to destroy our country will not give them anything with which to work.

What I am saying to all you old people is think it through. You don’t have to automatically support the Conservative Party of Canada because it was a family tradition. This man does not honour tradition so why should you?

Are you really ready to reward a man who lead his government into contempt of parliament and has lied to you non stop throughout this campaign, blaming his own doing on everyone else including a coalition only he sees, and creating fear that anyone but he is the devil and only he can fix what he broke?

Yes I am a member of the Canadian Action Party, but there is no candidate in my riding this year so I am looking at everyone, particularly Ms. May . Everyone that is except Gary Lunn the CPC incumbent, because I want my grandchildren to have a country without black, dead, toxic shore lines, and a chance not to be chained to a broken corporate system called North American Union or something like that.

Please join me in electing people to the parliament of Canada who will work for us not against us.

Jeremy Arney

Whats not being talked about in election 2011

What I am finding increasingly disturbing is what is not being talked about in this 2011 election:
The stimulus program part of the Action Plan is rapidly coming to an end, and many thousands of workers will be out of work again. Convenient that this will happen after the “unnecessary” election is over is it not?

New perimeter agreement with the USA which will further enmesh us into the control of the US Homeland Security with the resulting movement of personal data south.

CETA, the trade agreement with Europe which is still continuing through this election, and will undermine Canadian sovereignty even further. Provinces and municipalities will be subjected to WTO international trade deal rules, which we already know through FTA and NAFTA do not favour Canada. Our sewage, water and infrastructure will all be up for sale to European companies and we could even see the Trans Canada Highway turned into a toll road, owned and controlled by Spanish companies which specialize in that throughout the world.

By the end of this year Health Canada will have removed from the shelves of Health Stores about 80% of their offerings as the producers cannot afford the expensive scientific tests required by Health Canada to prove something that has been known for thousands of years to be fact; natural foods are safe and effective, yet they do not make money for the pharmaceutical companies, on the contrary they lose them profits due to wellness rather than sickness.

The Rule of Law in Canada has been turned on its head because we are becoming ruled by “violation of the regulations” in the laws, not the laws themselves. This means that the courts will not be used to judge innocence or guilt as that will be done by the Ministers themselves and the only recourse under this system is to a review panel established by that same Minister. The courts will not be involved at all. Guilty without the possibility of proving our innocence before a court is contrary to innocent until proven guilty in a court of law before a jury of our peers if necessary.

These and more are not being addressed so please help us get answers

Jeremy Arney

Another letter that tells it as I see it too.

 

Another letter I recieved and was given permission to pass on. It is very gratifying to me that others of much more skill and eloquence are saying the same things as I, in this case it is Robin Mathews.

Thank you Robin for your excellent words of warning, and if there is doubt in your minds dear readers, how many town hall meetings arre your conservative candidates attending?

Jeremy

Greetings: In town, and on the way out fast (family business.) If you think this (just sent to vivelecanada for posting) should go to others, please send it on. best wishes, Robin (back to you soon.) R

Adolf Hitler. Stephen Harper. The Big Lie.
A column like this one opens a question that can’t be answered immediately – perhaps not for a long time.
Fifteen years from now an observer may say this column shows how far from reality a commentator could go in the contentious days of 2011 in Canada.
Or, the commentator may ask why only the writer of this column saw the inevitable coming … what became obvious to everyone else … but only when it was too late?
A clue that the second case might be true is the repeated summing-up of the leaders debate on Tuesday, April 12 by Chris Hall (CBC parliamentary reporter).
Over and over he reported that the leaders of the NDP, the bloc quebecois, and the Liberals attacked Stephen Harper – and that he answered them. Not once did Chris Hall – or any of the other (‘mainstream’) commentators I have observed say that very many of Stephen Harper’s replies were manipulations of fact to convey falsehoods … when they were not outright lies.
Stephen Harper repeatedly said there was no tax cut for corporations in the latest budget (before Parliament closed for the election). That was not the point. A six billion dollar tax cut for the large corporations will come into effect if the Harperites win government.
Those cuts need not come into effect. And so, in fact, the Harperites are giving large corporations a six billion dollar tax cut.
Lying flagrantly, Stephen Harper insisted his Party is not in contempt of Parliament when it is so without question.
On the matter of the Harperites refusing to provide spending information (one of the bases of the contempt ruling) Harper said his agents gave all information – a statement which is simply not true.
Perhaps most important of all, he denied the fundamental facts of parliamentary government, insisting that “Canadians” believe the Party with the most votes must govern. What he argued, in fact, is a denial of the democratic parliamentary system. In short, he lied.
This morning on an open line show a caller claimed his statement that the Canadian Labour Congress endorses his budget is an outright lie.
Those are five random examples. Random, I say, because one would need a script of the debate to count up the number of times Stephen Harper lied outright or manipulated facts to convey falsehoods.
He didn’t disable his opponents by superior argument. He disabled the whole debate by using persistent falsehood and near falsehood.
The latest, mid-election flurry of revelations of misdoing concerns expenditures on the G20 Summit. Allegations are of misleading Parliament by the Harperites (words for ‘lying to Parliament’?), misallocation of huge amounts of money, insider indulgences of Roman proportions. All that through “leaks” of a forthcoming Report by the Auditor General Sheila Fraser.
In Ottawa, Harperite insider John Baird has spoken with apparent confident authority about what is contained in the confidential Report. How can he do so? Who gave him copies of the Report? Did Sheila Fraser? Stephen Harper (characteristically) is avoiding responsibility … for as long as he can.
Canadians must ask how many such seamy revelations are waiting for an opening of the secrecy-bound activities of the Harperites? They must ask the question.
Meanwhile, almost unnoticed, it has been revealed the Harperites took words of praise Sheila Fraser wrote about Liberal financial activities and quoted them about Harperite “work”. Sheila Fraser is apparently upset! Stockwell Day apologized profusely. But the question remains – who did that piece of chicanery? Did Stephen Harper order it? Can the Harperites be trusted on any matter whatever?
The conclusions which I have come to are quite clear. I believe Stephen Harper is more comfortable lying than telling the truth. I believe he is a psychopathic liar – which means I believe he will lie (and follow up his lies) in any way he can to gain his ends and aggrandize his position.
To take the logic of that position to its conclusion, I believe that – if Stephen Harper were to gain enough power – he would murder his political opponents, would have innocent Canadians shot down in the streets. [Remember the Toronto G20 violations of free assembly.]
If what I write is fair comment on observed public affairs, then Stephen Harper may properly be described as a neo-Fascist.
Historians of Nazism sometimes suggest the architect of “the Big Lie” in Nazi politics was Josef Goebbels, the only Ph. D in the inner circle and an early Party member. But the ultimate author of all Nazi strategies of falsehood in that brutal despotism was Adolf Hitler himself.
He was a friend of Winnifred Wagner, manager – preceding and during the Second World War – of the famous Bayreuth (Wagner) Festivals. Early in Hitler’s time of growing power Winnifred Wagner would express dismay to him about Nazi street brutality against political opponents and others.
Like Stephen Harper when faced with evidence of undeniable wrong-doing by the Party, Hitler would say he knew nothing about it, or someone else did it without his orders. Or he would belittle the evidence or … change the subject or … lie outright.
When faced with inescapable need to act with courage and honesty, Hitler, like Stephen Harper, would take the coward’s way out.
In a moment of brazen bravado, for instance, Harper suggested a one-on-one election debate with Michael Ignatieff – who agreed immediately. On April Fool’s day, the press announced Stephen Harper’s retreat, babbling nonsense and, again, repeating a simple lie – that a coalition exists and is led by Michael Ignatieff.
Harper’s campaign is built and based upon that and worse kinds of lying. As the Encyclopedia Brittanica writes in relation to Fascism, Stephen Harper makes a “proud sacrifice of all ethical scruples to success”. What Canadians must realize is that Stephen Harper employs a complex strategy of lies that are well thought out and employed in no accidental way.
To say Harper is fairly called a neo-Fascist may seem harsh. But people in democracies must be clear-eyed if they wish to protect democratic freedoms. Even Plato – 2500 years ago – observed that Tyranny develops most naturally out of Democracy.
The characteristics of Fascism across Europe in the first half of the twentieth century were plain: the sharing of State power with private corporations to pursue common goals. Using the police to destroy civil freedoms. Operating all activities under ‘the Big Lie”. Enrolling the Mainstream Press and Media as accomplices in political gangsterism. Persecuting, starving, torturing, murdering any number of people opposed to the Fascists.
Hitler was determined to take power by constitutional means after having failed in a violent attempt at a coup in Munich in 1923. Twisting, perverting, exploiting, debasing constitutional practice (like Stephen Harper), Hitler managed to bully and coerce his way to supreme power in Germany – with results we know too well.
Stephen Harper’s wholly perverse manipulation of prorogation to avoid votes in Parliament might have been learned directly from Adolf Hitler.
Harper’s actions to deny Parliament rightful information and to support the alleged lies of a cabinet minister might, also, have been learned from the earlier “drive to power” of a dictator-in-waiting.
Like Adolf Hitler, Stephen Harper is, I have no doubt, the author of all his Party’s ‘strategies of falsehood”, all its attempts to destroy the democracy in which it presently works.
Harper’s use of the RCMP to eject the unwanted from “democratic” election campaign meetings matches Hitler’s “strong-arm squads” created to protect Nazi meetings from attendance by “the unwanted”.
Indeed, before the present election was announced, I wrote a column on the RCMP and its growing corruption. In that column I guessed that the dismissal of the top man at the RCMP, William Elliott, was post-dated by Harper because the Mounties would be needed for dirty work in the election.
As happened, RCMP officers have been used as thug “security” in the Harper meetings. Did those RCMP officers wear the brown shirts of the Nazis? We know nothing about them. Who are they? What are their names? Why have they not been identified? Who ordered them to act at those meetings? Was it Stephen Harper? We must know – before the election.
Nor is it accidental, I believe, that William Elliott – the recently fired top RCMP officer – was, earlier, a key actor in the Prime Minister’s Office undertaking the approval of much-charged Bruce Carson to become a top advisor to Stephen Harper.
Carson is presently under investigation by the RCMP for alleged improper behaviour in attempts to get contracts awarded. He has a record of misdeeds and dubious connections. Stephen Harper alleges he knew almost nothing of Bruce Carson’s past.
One may guess that for his good and faithful service first in the PMO, and then in Stockwell Day’s Public Safety Department, and then as head of the RCMP, William Elliot will fall from grace onto a very carefully prepared, soft, luxurious bed.
Under Guiliano Zaccardelli, the RCMP used its “investigation” of Ralph Goodale and the Department of Finance in 2006 to help defeat the Liberals. Now the RCMP makes clear it can say nothing about the tale of Stephen Harper’s senior henchman Bruce Carson, involved, it is alleged, in a dirtier piece of business than any Ralph Goodale has ever been remotely connected to.
Having very recently discovered ethics, “ethics” is apparently the basis upon which the William Elliott RCMP refuses to report about Bruce Carson.
Carson’s close relation to Stephen Harper and the PMO has, we may be sure, nothing to do with the RCMP’s newfound “ethics” and “discretion”.
The same slippery dishonesty, I believe, is involved in the case of Elizabeth May’s exclusion from the leaders debate. The key force rejecting her has been, I believe, Stephen Harper. When the decision of the “media consortium” was announced, both Jack Layton and Michael Ignatieff said she should be included in the debate.
Characteristically shifting responsibility, Stephen Harper said he would accept the decision of the “media consortium” – which, of course – consulted the Parties. Only when it became plain that public sentiment wanted Elizabeth May in the debate – only then did Harper change his tune and say he supported her presence.
If truth is ever told by members of the media consortium, I am almost certain they will report that Harper publicly supported May’s presence while privately telling the consortium he would withdraw if she was allowed in. Harper knows she threatens his nondescript candidate Gary Lunn. And so I believe Harper – in typical covert fashion – acted to keep her out.
Consider the next minority government. I believe the Mainstream Press and Media are doing what they can to secure a Harper victory. If they were being genuinely impartial, they would have to be reporting simple, factual things they are not reporting. 1. Minority governments occur commonly in parliamentary systems. 2. Such governments often do excellent work. 3. Coalitions may form – and, if they do, they can govern effectively. 4. If they don’t form, ‘agreements to govern’ (as has, in fact, been the case in Canada since 2006) can be effective. 5. And so Stephen Harper’s attack on those possibilities is a sham. It is a hoax which he is attempting to perpetrate on the Canadian public.
But … more! The Mainstream Press and Media should expose Stephen Harper’s real goal … the one he is trying to use a pattern of lies to achieve.
Having gone Right to the point of having ‘nut case Yankee policies”, Harper knows they won’t be supported by a minority government. $30 billions (plus) for fighter planes. A $6 billion gift to large corporations. Multi billions to build [who will get the contracts?] new nineteenth century jails to pack with people who shouldn’t be in jail. And more….
Harper has set up a situation that is so obscene no minority parliament could accept it.
That means the minority parliament will vote him down and will seek from the Governor General the right to rule. Stephen Harper has, I believe, anticipated that (as I believe he anticipated he would need William Elliott as head of the RCMP during the election). And so he appointed a Harperite Hack as Governor General. That opens huge and dangerous possibilities. If the Governor General attempts to work politically for Stephen Harper, instead of constitutionally for Canada, he will create a crisis in Canadian democracy.
In that situation a Harper attempted coup d’etat will be used to prevent a Liberal-led minority government.
If that happens, the Opposition parties will be forced into some kind of coalition. To save Canadian democracy, the matter may demand an all-party Opposition coalition. Stephen Harper knows that, I am sure. He is trying to lie enough to make Canadians believe (in advance) that a coalition is undemocratic and illegitimate. That is why he lies about it consistently…on and on and on.
Stephen Harper has never let the truth stand in the way of his ambition to rule as what Plato called a Tyrant.
The Mainsteam Press and Media – which opens up none of the facts on this matter, supports, I believe, what is in fact Stephen Harper’s baldfaced lying. Even the CBC does. In the face, for instance, of what the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting insist is an outright lie by the Prime Minister’s Office, by Stephen Harper, and by the arts and culture minister James Moore about cuts to CBC funding … the CBC remains mute.
Complicity with lies and wrongdoing can’t go much farther than that.
It is plain that Canadians are going to have to figure out the pattern of lying laid out by Stephen Harper and what it is intended to produce. They are going to have to figure it out in the face of the failure of the Mainstream Press and
Media to do their job. Canadians would be wise to be ready for a major attempt to hi-jack democracy in Canada and to have set up in its place a Harper Tyranny.
Canadians are going to have to realize they’re facing what I believe is a neo-Fascist leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. And Canadians are going to have to reject him with all the energy they have.

Senator Tommy Banks letter re Harper’s gradual destruction of our Canada

There is a paragraph in the begining of this that allows me to put this on my blog and I gladly do so.  It is vindication of what I have been trying to say for years now.

Thank you Tommy Banks, a senator for the people of Canada.
Jeremy

What Canadians have lost under this “Harper” Govt.
Tommy Banks,

Canadian conductor and pianist,
host of the CBC television’s “The Tommy Banks Show” for 15 years.
—– Original Message —–
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 11:33 PM
Subject: Tom Banks

A letter from my partner Tom Banks
by Sharman King on Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 10:39am

I apologize for this long re-post, but I’d like to share with my friends this letter from my business partner and musical associate Senator Tommy Banks. It’s worth noting that Tom was a Conservative when he was appointed to the Senate. If you agree with this food for thought please feel free to send it to your friends of whatever political stripe. The bigger message here is how we want our government to behave, no matter who forms that government. Here’s Tom’s missive:
There is only one thing about the outcome of the May 2nd election on which Mr. Ignatieff and Mr. Harper agree. It is that one of them will be the Prime Minister of Canada. Mr. Layton, Mr. Duceppe and Ms. May are not in the running to form a government. They can’t. It will be either Mr. Ignatieff or Mr. Harper.

That is the choice, and it is a very clear – in fact, stark choice. We will choose between openness or secrecy. Between listening or refusing to listen. Between someone who respects Parliament or someone who disdains it. Between things we can and will do now or things that, (provided of course that everything goes well), we might do in five or six years. Between someone who answers all questions from Canadians, or someone who won’t accept any.

Between Mr. Harper who said “It’s past time the feds scrapped the Canada Health Act”, or Mr. Ignatieff who said “ . . . we don’t want user fees. We want universal, accessible, free-at-the-point-of-service health care, paid out of general revenue. That’s just bottom line. Otherwise we get two-tiered”.

Between buying jets or helping vets. Between real early childhood learning and care or Saturday-night babysitting. Between respect for our great institutions or contempt for them. Between helping families or helping big corporations. Between the Canada that we think we have, or the way in which Mr. Harper has already changed it.

Over the past few years Mr. Harper’s government has quietly engineered so many changes that there are some ways in which our country is barely recognizable. Many of us don’t yet realize the extent of those changes, because many of them have been brought about very carefully and gradually – almost imperceptibly in some cases.

This is diabolically clever. If these things had all been done at once, there would have been loud protests and reactions. But moving just one little brick at a time doesn’t cause much fuss – until you realize that the whole house has been renovated. And we’ve hardly noticed.

These are changes that are at the very heart of who and what Canadians are. They are changes to the protections that used to exist against the tyranny of the majority – or against a single-minded my-way-or-the-highway autocrat. These changes are losses to our very Canadian-ness. Let me remind you of some of them:

The Law Commission of Canada was created by an Act of Parliament in 1997. It worked very well. It kept an eye in a sort-of avuncular way, on necessary reforms of the law, including election law. The Commission couldn’t actually change law; but it was very good at letting governments and everybody else know when changes needed to be made and why. It was our legal Jiminy Cricket, and it performed a valuable service for Canada. The Commission was created by an Act of Parliament, and any government wanting to shut it down should have been up-front about it. It should have come to Parliament with a Bill to rescind The Law Commission of Canada Act. That’s what any of our 21 previous Prime Ministers would have done.

But to Mr. Harper, Parliament is an inconvenience. Somebody might ask “Why are you doing this?” But he didn’t want to go through all that Parliamentary trouble; so, rather than proposing the abolition of the Commission (a proposal about which there would have been pretty fierce debate on all sides), they just eliminated all funding for it in the federal budget. Governments can do that. Poof – no Law Commission.

Nice and quiet. Just one little brick. Hardly noticed.

Then there was the Court Challenges Programme, set up in 1994, which was the means by which a bit of legal help could be provided to a private individual or small organization who didn’t have a lot of money, and who was taking on, or being taken on by, the Government of Canada. It leveled the legal playing field a bit. It was a perfect example of fundamental Canadian fairness.

By convincing a tough panel of judges of the reasonableness of your cause, you could get a little help in paying for some lawyers to go up against the phalanx of legal beagles that could always, and forever, and at public expense, be brought to bear against you by the State. In other words, if you weren’t rich, and if you were taking on or being taken on by the Feds, you might have had a chance. But Mr. Harper doesn’t like being questioned, let alone challenged. It’s so inconvenient! Solution? Quietly announce that the Court Challenges Programme is being, er, discontinued. Poof – no Court Challenges Programme – no court challenges.

Hardly noticed.

The Coordination of Access to Information Request System (CAIRS) was created (by a Progressive-Conservative government) in 1989 so that departments of government could harmonize their responses to access-to-information requests that might need multi-departmental responses. It was efficient; it made sure that in most cases the left hand knew what the right hand was doing, or at least what they were saying; and it helped keep government open and accountable. Well, if you’re running a closed-door government, that’s not a good idea, is it? So, as a Treasury Board official explained to the Canadian Press, CAIRS was killed by the Harper government because “extensive” consultations showed it wasn’t valued by government departments. I guess that means that the extensive consultations were all with government departments.

Wait! Wasn’t there anybody else with whom to extensively consult? Wasn’t there some other purpose and use for CAIRS? Didn’t it have something to do with openness and accountability? I guess not. Robert Makichuk, speaking for Mr. Harper’s government, explained that “valuable resources currently being used to maintain CAIRS would be better used in the collection and analysis of improved statistical reporting”.

Right. In other words, CAIRS was an inconvenience to the government. So poof – it’s disappeared. And, except for investigative reporters and other people who might (horrors!) ask questions, its loss is hardly noticed.

And the bridge too far for me: Cutting the already-utterly-inadequate funding for the exposure of Canadian art and artists in other countries. That funding was, by any comparison, already laughably miniscule. Mr. Harper says that “ordinary” Canadians don’t support the arts. He’s wrong. And his is now the only government of any significant country in the world that clearly just doesn’t get it.

All these changes were done quietly, cleverly, and under the radar. No fuss. No outcry. Just one little brick at a time. But in these and other ways, our Canadian house is no longer the kind of place it once was. Nobody minds good renovations. Nobody even minds tearing something down, as long as we put up something better in its place. That’s not what has happened.

Mr. Harper fired the head of the Canadian Wheat Board because he was doing his job properly. He removed the head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission because she wanted to make sure that the Chalk River nuclear reactor was safe.

Hardly noticed.

There are many more things that were hardly noticed: Cuts to funding for the Status of Women, Adult Learning and Literacy, Environmental Programs, museums funding, and more. All quietly, just one brick at a time.

Hardly noticed.

As to campaign promises, everybody in sight on every side is guilty of breaking those. Except the Federal NDP of course, who haven’t yet had the opportunity. (It’s very easy to make promises that you know you will not likely have to keep).

But the government promised to end wait times in health care. They didn’t. They promised to end, once and for all, the whining of some provinces about the non-existent “fiscal imbalance”. They didn’t. They said they had brought final resolution to the softwood lumber problem with the U.S. They haven’t. They promised to create thousands of new child-care spaces in Canada. They haven’t. They promised not to tax income trusts (“We will NEVER do that!” they said). They taxed them. They promised to lower your income tax.

They raised it.

They said they had a good “made-in-Canada” plan to meet our obligations on climate change. They don’t. Mr. Harper has said plainly that whatever the Americans do is what we’ll do too.

They campaign on a platform of transparency and accountability; but they’re now trying to discredit the Parliamentary Budget Officer that they created, because he’s trying to do the job that they gave him. Mr. Harper said that our form of government, evolved over centuries from the 900-year-old British Westminster tradition, was all wrong. We had to have fixed election dates, because otherwise, democratic principles would be trampled. “Fixed election dates”, he said, “stop leaders from trying to manipulate the calendar. They level the playing field for all parties”.

So Parliament (remember them?) at Mr. Harper’s insistence, passed a law requiring fixed election dates, which Mr. Harper promptly broke.

Somebody once said that we get the kind of government we deserve. What did we do to deserve Mr. Harper? He once said that we should all “Stand Up for Canada”. Well, let’s do that. We just have to decide whether the present version of Canada is the one that we’ll stand up for. Or stand for.

Thank you

Tommy Banks (an Alberta Senator.)

Whats up Stephen? I tried to warn you.

In the year 2008, at a town Hall meeting on Salt Spring Island during the federal election, I accused both the Conservatives and Liberals of being short sighted concerning the economic health of North America and posed the question to everyone there

What is your back up plan for when the economic crunch hits?

I was naturally laughed at, specially by Gary Lunn of the Reform/Alliance coalition, yet just a few months later after a huge panic , proroguing of parliament to maintain the government of apparently paralized non believers (or outright liars) , and a large budget that just could not have been produced in the time it took from denial to presentation in parliament, this government produced a direction with which I have never agreed.
They had an opportunity to change the face of Canada and reestablish Canada as a productive nation.
Since FTA and NAFTA we have been bleeding manufacturing companies, plants and jobs to Mexico, USA and of course Asia.
So here was a chance to spend money with two purposes instead of just one.
What we got was a huge spending spree largely in Conservative ridings or ridings they wanted to win, to fix up bridges, roads, arenas etc., none of which created long term full time jobs with benefits; in fact I would argue that very few new jobs were created through this program anyway. What we have had is an increase of part time, non-benefit jobs which are neither sustaining nor productive.
What we could have had as I even proposed during that election campaign of 2008, was to start production of such things as solar panels made in recently closed saw mills or pulp mills, or manufacturing pre cut log homes to export all over the world, instead of just exporting raw logs. Production of recycled wood, or even using pine beetle killed lumber to produce presto logs for burning in fire places – in fact now we in BC import presto logs from Washington State.

To give an example if I may, we have almost finished a $24 million overpass on the #17 highway here on Vancouver Island at the Victoria Airport exit. Apparently the business plan says it will pay $144 million over 20 years so it is a good business plan. My question was who will be making that $144 million, and it turns out that it is ICBC (Insurance Corporation of BC) who will benefit from the apparent lack of accidents cost. Well dear lord this was one of the safest intersections on the highway so surely a better business plan would have encouraged any of the other intersections to be replaced. I was unable to get from the Minister of Transport how many, if any, new jobs were created by this $24 million, bearing in mind that job creation was supposed to be the main reason for the spending of this stimulus money. I also got no answer about how many full time jobs would result after the completion of this job, so obviously it was an excuse to spend money in a weak riding of a junior minister of state

What has happened is that the government has turned its back on real production here in Canada; innovation and foresight are gone, to be replaced with the destruction of our ecology for the sake of oil, gas, gold and coal mines etc., The fracking process to extract gas is now established in the north east of BC with no regard for what it is doing to either the rivers lakes or streams or worse yet the aquifers which are all being contaminated by toxic waste water forced into the earth under extreme pressure. Nothing else matters but the ravaging of our country for the sake of exports of natural resources to both the USA and China. Unfortunately none of the companies involved in this exporting business are Canadian owned so we are actually not getting any real benefit from this raping of our earth, the destruction of aboriginal ways of life and the giving away of our commons.

I do believe that as long as we avoid the concept of producing real things here in Canada for consumption here and abroad, we will be a small bit player eating on the crumbs thrown our way by the real economies around the world.

I hear again and again from this government that we are through the recession which was not of our making, and that we didn’t bail out our banks – what? I make it a $75 billion bailout.

“The Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, today announced the Government will purchase up to an additional $50 billion of insured mortgage pools by the end of the fiscal year as part of its ongoing efforts to maintain the availability of longer-term credit in Canada.

This action will increase to $75 billion the maximum value of securities purchased through Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) under this program. The Main Wire, November 12, 2008

and they were still trying at that time to say that there wasn’t a problem !

On top of that we were told by Harper:

At the height of the election campaign, Prime Minister Harper stated emphatically that: “this is not a bailout… it will cost the government nothing.” (CBC News, October 10, 2008).

So who paid for it Harper? Your fairy godmother?

Another lie is that we are the best in the G20 – oh come on get real here, how can we be the best if we don’t make anything, if we have a huge and growing unemployment problem, homeless everywhere, sick and mentally ill not getting any attention, and an alienation of our aboriginal peoples, a growing debt problem and reduced income levels due to huge tax cuts to high profit corporations?

This is the best in the G20? Who is kidding who here?

We are rapidly sinking into a “have not” country so that it will be easier for USA to swallow us up, just as Harper has wanted ever since he became prime minister.

At the same time as this money was being spent on ‘infrastructure’, we purchased:
Army trucks and rescue planes:
Our government is going to spend 274 million dollars buying 1,300 “heavily armoured” trucks (that’s $210,769 each – presumably US $ at that) for “domestic” use by the Canadian army from the USA, and then another 3 billion buying Italian planes, also to be made in the USA, to replace the aging fleet of Buffalo rescue planes on the west coast.   from my letter to the local paper editor.

As a result of that army trucks purchase from the USA, the International Harvester plant in Chatham laid off many workers which was of course a loss of jobs and tax revenue to both levels of government…Good job MacKay, trustworthy as ever I see, and how you could not see that coming is beyond me.

Navistar sent out 500 layoff notices to its Chatham workforce last week, with another 200 expected in the spring. thestar,com Wednesday Jan 14th 2009

For Air Sea Rescue planes, Viking Air of Calgary, Aberta and Sidney, BC, both in Conservative ridings. lost out to the US made Italian design even though they told MacKay they could do a better job ….didn’t cut any ice with him of course, and Canadian jobs were not a priority….!

We won’t even get into the costly new one engine stealth fighter from the US when the Russians have one every bit as good, ready now at less money one would have thought. Any way what are we doing putting our flyers at risk in the north with only one engine?

There is a sickness about this particular government that I find very hard to understand. The verbal stuff we hear from it is pro Canadian, and yet the practice is totally the opposite. Such is the control by the prime minister he might as well be the dictator he imagines himself to be. “I make the rules” does not fit with a democratic form of government and it bothers me that there are still some people in this country who cannot see what he us up to and actually support his desire to destroy Canada as we have known it.

It is obvious to me that as long as we reduce our income, and waste a fortune of public money on partisan advertising, very bad purchasing of material stuff, gross mismanagement of major portfolios, a dysfunctional government which has been challenged on parliamentary contempt more than any government on our history we will not be able to stand on our own feet much longer.

What have you done Stephen and is your mother proud of you?

Jeremy Arney

The Harper Government, how low can you go.

What follows is an angry comment on what is happening in our Canadian parliament to destroy Canada as we have known it and replace it with a corpocracy, controlled by some unknown forces outside our borders, and the latest attempt by our Prime Minister to undermine the Canadian Parliament.

I have said it before and I will say it again.

Our Canadian parliament is in a total shambles.

The prime minister of Canada is a heartless soulless metronome responding to the corporate interests of the world and not to the people who elected him in his riding, nor those who elected him to lead his party and therefore the country. His contempt for the people of Canada, their future, the country’s sovereignty, the parliament of Canada, and anything that is non Israelite is absolutely astounding. And WE put up with it.

We put up with it because we do not absolutely demand from our elected representatives that they speak and act for us and remove this megalomaniacal son of Alberta from office.

The right hand man to all this is not the government House leader John Baird because he is simply a thick skinned idiot who can stand in the House of Commons and repeat ridiculous statements and falsehoods without blinking an eye. Rather the right hand man is a bumbling, buffoon who miss represents the Law in his position as Minister of Justice, but who probably has to ask permission to fart in the night.

As the Minister of Justice it is his responsibility to ensure that the Canadian Bill of Rights is not trampled on by any Bill prior to it becoming law in Canada.
When the Minister of Justice allows a Bill (Bill C-36) to proceed that removes the courts of Canada from any position in a proceeding of wrongdoing except only for a JP to provide an e-warrant to allow a swat team to enter a home on the suspicion of a civil servant that there might be a violation taking place; and then there is no further action by the courts as from that point on any wrong doing is a “violation” subject only to the kangaroo review board set up by a minister in charge of the swat team, we know that is not in the best interest of the people of Canada and is therefore a violation of the Bill of Rights. This stupid hand maiden to the Prime Minister can argue all he wants that he doesn’t see anything wrong, but he is the same man who is proclaiming so loudly that he and his government are acting in the best interest of victims of crime, and has yet to actually say or show what he is in fact doing for those victims.

Having established his stupidity and treasonous action towards the people of Canada, this fool is allowing his party’s dictator, who thinks he is a king, to change the name of the Government of Canada to The Harper Government. Yes, in the past in both writings about governments and speaking about governments, all governments have been referred to as “Chretien”, “Mulroney” etc., governments which is simply a description of the government of the day. However never before has this been done on official government letter head without the permission of either the House of Commons,  the yes men controlled Senate,or the people of Canada whose government this is. It does not belong to Harper even though his mind might have difficulty realizing this; he is slimply a caretaker until he is fired just as he fires all whistleblowers and people who disagree with him..
Damn the man he is totally unacceptable.

If I receive any correspondence from this “Harper Government” it will be trashed as I do not recognize its legitimacy.

After a couple of days I thought over the above and thus:

After an initial reaction of anger and revulsion for such a treasonous act at a time of very opaque transparency, no openness at all and the spendthrift direction for everything not to Harpers liking I started to think this is actually funny. I mean really how can anyone take this fellow seriously?
Should we take him seriously anymore?
He is supposed to be a Prime Minister so what went wrong?

Let’s take the next steps:

Harper’s Taxes:
None for the corporations, increases only for the minimum wage milieu.
Harper’s crown:
Wild rose of Israel
Harper’s scepter:
A glass of water to ease his throat when he lies
Harper’s hairpiece:
Replaced by a crown
Harper’s court:
Yes men of the Privy Council:
Harper’s Jester:
John Baird and the cabinet
Harper’s money:
Doesn’t exist because he is overdrawn at the banks
Harper’s credit:
All the corporate directorships he is line for
Harper’s supporters,
Stupid and terrified of him it seems.

There could be many more and I invite you to come up with your own, but the point here is that like so many weak men with inferiority complexes before him he is suffering from delusions of grandeur. This state of mind I think is caused by the inability to understand that we are trying to move forward in this country, not backwards to some sort of medieval feudal system, and Harper is too mentally structured towards absolute control to change.

Harper is not king material nor for that matter, lord of the manor, squire, town mayor or store keeper material. He has shown he is just a homophobic, bigoted, red neck idiot who uses his religion as an excuse.

At a time when the world is watching people power removing dictators he is trying to assume the title of dictator here in Canada.
Can he really be so stupid or are we?

It is definitely time we thought seriously of taking to the streets all over the country and then getting rid of this mental case and consign him to feeding the pigs at a farm in southern Alberta.

My grandchildren wonder why I am so upset with our current crop of pathetic politicians, and I suppose this is a prime example. At a time when we need leadership we are getting petty partisan bullshit, and an implosion of Canadian values.

Jeremy Arney

A Look at the Canadian Parliament in February 2011

Perhaps now would be a good time to do some evaluation of what the Canadian Parliament is all about.

We all know the concept that MPs are elected by the people of Canada to act on their behalf and to represent Canada to the world.

Is it working?

From my perspective as one of those people of Canada it is not.

We no longer have representation in Parliament, rather we have political parties which tell us what they will do for us and do not complete on those promises. One reason for this is that those parties respond to lobbyists and financial backers but not to the people.

We have a government now which is thinly disguised as Conservative, but is actually the Reform/Alliance coalition party and destruction is what they are doing to Canada and the Parliamentary structure. When Peter MacKay was elected leader of the Conservatives it was with the written agreement that he would not join with or amalgamate with the Reform/Alliance party, however he did so within months because the Reform/Alliance party needed a marketable name and he needed a cabinet seat. Talk to or read David Orchard on this subject, as he was the one who negotiated this agreement during that leadership convention.

This duplicity is still very much in evidence today, because it is the original foundation of the Reform party.
Lets look at the name Reform…Re…form.

What in their view has to be reformed?

The country? Yes
The concept of people having a say in government? Yes
Accountability to the people? Yes
Freedom without accountability for multinational and domestic corporations? Yes
Increased power to ministers (really the prime minister) to destroy what has been built up over the years? Yes
Destruction of any safeguards built into the system of government regardless of the wishes of the people? Yes
Change the Rule of Law? Yes
Build up police and military presence to achieve a police state? Yes
Removal of personal liberty to say and write the truth as seen? Yes
The ability to look after our own health using natural real foods and herbs? Yes
Acceptance and harmonization with anything American as we HAVE to join them and become part of them? Yes
Destruction of our rivers, lakes and the very lives of our indigenous people by mining and oil corporations, not only here but around the world. ( This has been going on for years so there is no change in policy here except the rate at which it is happening, and the deregulation of environmental concerns) Yes

Why does this all have to happen?

That is the question that can only really be answered by those who are doing it. However I think it is all to do with financial greed and power.

Perhaps the question should be more why are we allowing it to happen?

We no longer control our country, our destiny or our lives. Oh yes we can still go out and buy a new car, house, groceries etc., because the banks are manufacturing money out of nothing and allowing us the use of that money. But jobs are still shrinking, value for work done is not rewarded in any meaningful way, pride in country is at an all time low unless we win the world championship in something of course. What we will win a championship for is indifference to our country and our world. The security council fiasco showed that clearly.

It is a gloomy picture I paint, but as long as we are RULED, and allow ourselves to be RULED, by a man who is full of contempt, and I often think hatred, for anything Canadian we are faced with this gloom.

We have the power in this country to recover from almost anything except the destruction of our liberties. Our Parliament can be changed to represent the wishes of the people and thus free democracy can be returned to Canada. As long as we have an adversarial party system that allows hate and even fear mongering along with outright lies at election times and then allows it to become part of the process in the House of Commons we will not have any form of democracy, nor will we have people who want to take part in it. This apathy due to lack of real choice will complete the destruction of Canada as we know it.

Provided we have freedom to do so we can achieve anything.

Those very freedoms are under attack by the Reform/Alliance coalition party because these freedoms are so dangerous to them.

At the time of re-writing this (I originally did so about 6 months ago), there is a series of freedom movements going on in the middle east, peaceful and democratic in intent and where force has been used, as in Libya, it has been condemned by the world, which watches to see what will happen. This government is unable to respond in a positive way, because it does not know how to deal with people anywhere, only Israel, corporate lobbyists and their bosses.

There is a lesson here for the Canadian people who are tired of all this hypocrisy; we can take our country back if we want to. We can do it through the voting system or we can take to the streets. It is up to us to choose whilst we still can.

Respectfully

Jeremy Arney

Letter to Minister of Justice for Canada

I am tired of the antics of the Canadian Minister of Justice who seems to think that he is the only person in Canada who is interested in and working for the victims of violent crime. This is obviously not so and I decided to look at his crime bills, designed to fill the new prisons which his government is building, and his claim that he is protecting victims.  There is the premise which he doesn’t seem to grasp which is that there are no victims until the crime has been committed so in order to protect potential victims the crime must not happen.  That I believe is way to deep for this excuse for a Justice Minister to understand. It is also curiuos that he is getting so excited about crime when crime is diminishing in Canada inspite of him.

Here is the letter I wrote challenging him.

 

Rob Nicholson
Canadian Minister of Justice.
Ottawa.

Dear Minister,

I have watched you in amazement in committees and in the House demanding, posturing, spitting and exploding at the opposition parties and members of the House of Commons who were not instantly passing your Bills, which you claim are hard on criminals and helping victims; You are attacking and accusing the opposition of being soft on criminals, and uncaring about victims. It would make good theatre if it were not so out of place, misleading and factually untrue even in this current parliament, run by a government as arrogant, secretive, deceptive, divisive and dysfunctional as it is.

So I looked up all the bills you currently have before either house and there are 23 of them:
S-4, S-6, S-7, S-9, S-10, C4, C5, C16, C17, C21, C-22, C-23, C-23a, C-23b, C-30, C-39, C-48, C-50, C-51, C-53, C-54, C-59, and C-60. Of these 7 belong to the Minister of Public Safety but are in the same field as your bills.

I have attached a separate list in case you have forgotten some of the catchy, jingly names you have ascribed to these bills.

Bill S-7
(Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act)
gives victims the right to sue if they can wade through the complicated formula required to do so after the act itself.
Bill C-21
(Standing up for Victims of White Collar Crime Act)
Has provisions for restitution if there is any money recoverable.
Bill C-39
(Ending Early Release for Criminals and Increasing Offender Accountability Act)
Gives victims the right to speak at parole hearings, is this really a benefit?

With the exception of Bill C-60 all the rest have absolutely nothing in them for victims, increased jail time maybe and less parole options for prisoners maybe, but for victims nothing at all.

Bill C-60
(Citizen’s Arrest and Self-defence Act)
finally allows an attacked person to protect their property and themselves without fear of being arrested and put in jail themselves for doing so. About time too.

So, Minister of Justice, I am calling your bullshit and bluster and asking you to tell me where these victims’ benefits are in these Bills which you demand be now passed through Parliament at breakneck speed even though you have been sitting on some of them for many moons, even years.

Jeremy Arney
CAP candidate for SGI in 2008

Bills before the Canadian Parliament from Justice and Public Safety that are supposed to protect victims.

S-2. An Act to amend the Criminal Code and other Acts
(Protecting Victims From Sex Offenders Act)

S-6. An Act to amend the Criminal Code and another Act
(Serious Time for the Most Serious Crime Act)

S-7. An Act to deter terrorism and to amend the State Immunity Act
(Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act)

S-9. An Act to amend the Criminal Code (auto theft and trafficking in property obtained by crime)
(Tackling Auto Theft and Property Crime Act)

S-10. An Act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts
(Penalties for Organized Drug Crime Act)

C-4. An Act to amend the Youth Criminal Justice Act and to make consequential and related amendments to other Acts
(Protecting the Public from Violent Young Offenders))

C -5 An Act to amend the International Transfer of Offenders Act
(Keeping Canadians Safe (International Transfer of Offenders) Act)
The Minister of Public Safety

C-16. An Act to amend the Criminal Code
(Ending House Arrest for Property and Other Serious Crimes by Serious and Violent Offenders Act)

C-17. An Act to amend the Criminal Code (investigative hearing and recognizance with conditions)
(Combating Terrorism Act)

C-21. An Act to amend the Criminal Code (sentencing for fraud)
(Standing up for Victims of White Collar Crime Act)

C-22. An Act respecting the mandatory reporting of Internet child pornography by persons who provide an Internet service

C-23. An Act to amend the Criminal Records Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts
(Eliminating Pardons for Serious Crimes Act)
The Minister of Public Safety

C-23A. An Act to amend the Criminal Records Act
(Limiting Pardons for Serious Crimes Act)
The Minister of Public Safety

C-23B. An Act to amend the Criminal Records Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts
(Eliminating Pardons for Serious Crimes Act)
The Minister of Public Safety

C-30. An Act to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts
(Ending Early Release for Criminals and Increasing Offender Accountability Act)
The Minister of Public Safety

C-39. An Act to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts
(Ending Early Release for Criminals and Increasing Offender Accountability Act)
The Minister of Public Safety

C-48. An Act to amend the Criminal Code and to make consequential amendments to the National Defence Act
(Protecting Canadians by Ending Sentence Discounts for Multiple Murders Act)

C-50. An Act to amend the Criminal Code (interception of private communications and related warrants and orders)
(Improving Access to Investigative Tools for Serious Crimes Act)

C-51. An Act to amend the Criminal Code, the Competition Act and the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act
(Investigative Powers for the 21st Century Act)

C-53. An Act to amend the Criminal Code (mega-trials)
(Fair and Efficient Criminal Trials Act)

C-54. An Act to amend the Criminal Code (sexual offences against children)
(Protecting Children from Sexual Predators Act)

C-59. An Act to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (accelerated parole review) and to make consequential amendments to other Acts
(Abolition of Early Parole Act)
The Minister of Public Safety

C-60. An Act to amend the Criminal Code (citizen’s arrest and the defences of property and persons)
(Citizen’s Arrest and Self-defence Act)

Canada is loosing the Rule of Law

I have pointed out previously that one of the many dangers that Bill C-36 – now the misnamed Consumer Product Safety act – had hidden within it was the ability of a minister to avoid the courts by issuing “notices of violation” in a place of business with monetary sums attached rather than laying criminal or civil charges, and the only opportunity for objection was by review at a Ministerial review board.

Whilst both I and much more learned people such as Shawn Buckley, a constitutional lawyer, were ignored by all MPs and most of the Senators our fears that this would indeed be the beginning of change the rule of law in Canada are being borne out,

This is from the Canada Gazette, Part 1 of 29th January 2011 and clearly shows that the Minister of Transport is adopting the same process now it has been cleared by the House of Commons and the Senate as an “acceptable” means of avoiding the protection of the Canadian Courts in cases of suspected wrongdoing.

Highlighting in the main text is mine.

International Bridges and Tunnels Act.

Administrative Monetary Penalties Regulations

(International Bridges and Tunnels)

Monetary penalties can only be applied to “designated provisions”

in the proposed Regulations. Where there has been a contravention

of such a provision, the Minister of Transport would

decide on the amount of the fine to be charged. Before sending a

formal notice of violation to the offender, the Minister may enter

into discussion with the individual or corporation to try to have

them comply with the provision. If this attempt is unsuccessful,

the Minister has the authority to issue a notice of violation, identifying

the violation and the monetary penalty. Details concerning

the timeframe for payment and how the payment can be made

would also be included. If the payment were made as specified,

there would be no further proceedings under the Act with respect

to that contravention. However, if the individual or corporation

objects to the notice of violation, they have the right to request a

review by the Transportation Appeal Tribunal of Canada.

So I suppose my question is this:

Is this the way this dysfunctional Government will do away with the court system here in Canada and issue violations instead of arrests to violent criminals et al, which will lead to them filling their proposed super jails without the need to bother with courts? After all if the courts have not been involved in the process they can hardly be involved in any parole hearings can they?

Behind my supercilious question there lies a real worry that this government, to whom the people of Canada – their employers – mean absolutely nothing, really might be heading this way. Clearly the rule of law is under attack here in Canada as the Ministers of a dysfunctional government will soon be in charge of all “violations” and “penalties”.

One has only to observe the Minister of Justice to see that his blustering buffoonery when he is in the House, or at a parliamentary Committee, is just a façade to cover his removal of the rule of law and his rejection of the Canadian Bill of Rights, and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and indeed our constitution. Not only that but he is telling us what a wonderful fellow he is to be doing it and wildly criticizing anyone who does not agree with him!

Is this what we want to leave for our children and grandchildren? I know I do not nor do I give my approval to what my employees are doing.

If you treated your employer this way how long would you have your job?

Please help me send them a clear message about this and speak up now.

Jeremy Arney