“The Harper government is the most environmentally hostile one we have ever had in Canada.” – Maude Barlow, Chair of the Council of Canadians About 1,500 scientists, lawyers, students and activists from across Canada gathered on Parliament Hill yesterday and held a mock funeral to mourn the death of Canadian
Continue readingTag: Bill C-38
CANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: In Ottawa, scientists to mourn the death of Canadian evidence
Canadian scientists gather in Ottawa today to stage a funeral procession to protest the Harper government’s draconian cuts to federal scientific programs and systematic muzzling of Canadian scientists. The protest is sponsored by the Council of Canadians. It begins at the Ottawa Convention Centre at 12 p.m. ET and ends with a rally
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: The Economist Insulted Progressive Canadians’ Intelligence
Earlier, I gloated over the influential right-leaning British magazine’s criticism of Harper’s burgeoning elected dictatorship. I’ve a second sober take on the issue. See, I failed to read between the lines: The Economist actually ridiculed progressive Canadians’ collective intelligence. First, the magazine tells its readers: “Polls show that voters still consider
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Liberal Party Petition: No More Omnibus Bills, Harper
The just-concluded Parliamentary session witnessed “serious abuses of power by the Harper Conservatives” through the use of two omnibus bills “that are radically changing Canada”: crime Bill C-10 and Budget Bill C-38. Please Go HERE to sign and share the Liberal Party of Canada’s petition against this abuse of power by
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Right-leaning British magazine rips Stephen Harper
Since coming to power in 2006, the Canadian prime minister “has acquired a reputation for playing fast and loose with the rules.” Harper plays to his social conservative base. He and his Conservative majority government tolerate neither criticism nor dissent. But these “bullying” ways are set to boost the opposition’s
Continue readingPaul S. Graham: Videos: National Stop Harper Day in Winnipeg
July 1, 2012: National Stop Harper Day in Winnipeg. Photo: Paul S. Graham Traditionally a day of celebration, Canada Day 2012 became National Stop Harper Day for Canadians in 12 cities because of the regressive policies of the Harper government, most notably Bill C-38. In Winnipeg, citizens held a Funeral
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: On Canada’s Independence Day, #DenounceHarper & #HappyCanadaDay
This is Canadian political dissent like never seen before. For two reasons. First and especially, the dissent is taking place on Canada’s Independence Day. Second, it’s directed against a prime minister supposedly elected with a majority just over a year ago, on May 2. Once again, Canadians are using the
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: The Obert Report: Harper and Obama Argue About The War of 1812 (VIDEO)
Co-hosts Obert and Anita dramatize a recent secret conversation between Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and US President Barack Obama. Harper and his Conservative majority government are militarizing Canadian society. They’re re-writing the country’s history to fit their fledgling right-wing worldview. Canada‘s Independence Day is around the corner and Harper
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Harper Government Must Set Canadian Scientists Free
Nature, one of the biggest and most-read scientific journals in the world, made this call in a February 29th editorial. The journal lamented the Harper Government’s undisguised hostility to openness, expert opinion and publicly-funded scientific expertise. Rightly so. At some point, the government’s stated communication policy, posted on a federal website and
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Six Questions for your MP about Bill C-38
Wednesday, June 27, 2012 With Bill C-38 before the Senate, Members of Parliament (MPs) have gone home from Ottawa. There they will doubtless receive a warm welcome from their constituents, as well as questions about the Budget and why attacks to Canada's environment and the laws that support it were
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Canada’s Fisheries Act after Bill C-38
Wednesday, June 27, 2012 Postmedia reporter, Mike DeSouza, has recently released several slides from Fisheries and Oceans Canada staff explaining how the current Canadian Fisheries Act is intended to protect fish habitat, including a slide clearly setting out the current legal protection for fish habit. Bill C-38, if fully implemented,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Here There Be Heroes
No matter what age we may attain, I doubt that we ever lose our need for heroes. Certainly, as we grow up, the definition of hero must mature, changing from someone with superpowers who fights evil and injustice, to someone who looks very much like we do, has no special
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: My Letter To My Tory M.P.
As mentioned in my previous post, the Harper Conservatives are starting to receive ‘blowback’ as a result of their heavy-handed and undemocratic push of Bill C-38, their budget omnibus bill. Now would seem to be a propitious time to express how we feel about M.P.s whose fealty to ‘Dear Leader’
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: It’s Time To Show Some National Self-Respect
When I was a child, I was afraid of many people: my teachers, who believed in strapping and slapping us as early as Grade One, school bullies who periodically picked on me, and some of the thuggish people residing in my working-class neighbourhood who enjoyed verbally assaulting those even more
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Will Bill C-38 offload fisheries to the provinces?
Friday, June 15, 2012 Bill C-38, the Budget Implementation Bill, with its various amendments to Canada’s environmental laws, is a complicated statute, with many long-term implications that have not been fully explored. One of the most significant, however, has to be the possibility that the Bill may have the effect
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Je Me Souviens
I remember. In Quebec, the phrase has always captured a sense of grievance, which goes back to the Plains of Abraham. But, stamped on the bottom of Quebec license plates, it has come to stand for more than that. It speaks to the uniqueness of the province. It is a
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: We Have Failed Ourselves And Each Other
Psychically tired, I can think of little to add to this Star editorial on Bill C-38. The rest is really up to us, isn’t it? Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: Over 120 Lawyers Ask for Proposed Environmental Changes to be Removed from Bill C-38
You would think that such a significant resistance from the law community might have an effect on the Regime’s thinking, but don’t count on it. The goal is the full implementation of a neoliberal agenda in the belief that it will be next to impossible to reverse – even were
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: An Independent M.P. Condemns Harper Omnibus Bill
I was just reading my weekly community paper, and my M.P., the disingenuous David Sweet, indulges in a debasement of language befitting Orwell’s 1984. For example, despite the tremendous havoc the Harper omnibus bill will wreak on environmental protection, Sweet says that under Bill C-38, “environmental initiatives will not be
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: West Coast goes to Ottawa to talk about how the Omnibus Bill will harm Canada
Thursday, June 14, 2012 On May 31, 2012, I travelled to Ottawa, on behalf of West Coast Environmental Law Association, to speak in person about the budget bill’s attack on nature and democracy to the House of Commons Finance Subcommittee on Part 3 of Budget Bill C-38. What is Part 3
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