The governing body of the House of Commons continues to fail Canadians on the important questions of transparency and oversight. In his recent report, Michael Ferguson, the Auditor General of Canada, called for more transparency. But board has “further limited public transparency over its secret meetings and decisions.” It meets in camera. Parliamentary
Continue readingTag: Canada Politics
CANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Worst Canadian in The World: Senator Patrick Brazeau
Meet Patrick Brazeau (pictured), the sexist Canadian senator who called Ottawa-based reporter, Jennifer Ditchburn, a bitch yesterday. Her crime: she’d done her job by highlighting his poor attendance record in Canada’s appointed upper house of Parliament. He immediately issued a “reluctant” apology. Why did Brazeau call the reporter a bitch?
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Harper Conservatives’ Attack Ad Betrays Fear of Mulcair Victory in 2015 (VIDEO)
Stephen Harper’s Tories are proof that when a dictatorial regime is threatened by the force a democratic insurgency, and the specter of losing power, it becomes dangerous. Threatened by the prospect of NDP leader Thomas Mulcair becoming Prime Minister in 2015, the Conservative Party of Canada released a new dirty-politics
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Canadian Political Satire: Obert Report Episode 1: Harper’s NDP Hitler Comment
Welcome to Episode 1 of the Obert Report, a future online talk show program in the making. The episode is a satirical commentary on a recent outrageous comment made by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper who recently said during a debate in Parliament: “The leader of the NDP, in 1939,
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Jason Kenney’s Tell-Tale Conservative Apology
Apparently, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has apologized for labeling Thomas Lukaszuk, the deputy premier of Alberta, “a complete and utter a-hole.” And Lukaszuk’s boss, premier Alison Redford wants us to believe that Kenney’s insult amounts to: “there are people who have personalities that do and don’t get along.” And that “there
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Dalton gets his way … at what price?
Call me nuts, but if there’s one thing I don’t like about minority governments (also called a “hung legislature” in some other democracies) is that they often rule as if they have a majority. Case in point — Queen’s Park finally passed the 2012 Ontario budget but only after a
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: With new NDP shadow cabinet, Mulcair plots Harper’s 2015 defeat
Last week’s 24-hour House of Commons vote on Stephen Harper‘s draconian budget Bill C-38, the “Growth and Long-Term Prosperity Act”, ended in a dramatic fashion. The New Democratic Party (NDP), the Official Opposition, concluded the vote with a spontaneous: Deux mille quinze! Deux mille quinze! Deux mille quinze! chant. That’s French
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Budget Bill C-38: Canadian MPs, Citizens, Tweet Their Frustrations
For an incredible 24 hours, Canadian opposition MPs held up the passage of Stephen Harper and the Conservative government’s draconian budget Bill C-38. They forced votes on more than 800 proposed amendments to the 425-page behemoth. In the end the Conservatives torpedoed every opposition amendment, to score a dubious, dictatorship-style
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Budget Bill C-38: Canadians Step Up Fight Against Stephen Harper
It’s the eve of the House of Commons vote on Harper’s draconian budget Bill C-38. Earlier today, the Conservatives moved to shut down debate on the legislation. NDP House Leader Nathan Cullen (pictured) promises to make the Conservatives “feel a little pain” for the arrogance and deliberate assault on
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Canada’s “Refugee Exclusion Act” Clears Commons
What a sad day for Canadian politics! All day today, millions of us were entranced by the epic beginning of the struggle against Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s draconian Budget Bill C-38. In the meantime, the Conservatives used their majority advantage in the House of Commons to pass Immigration minister Jason
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Vic Toews To Use Magnotta Murder Case To Revive Internet Surveillance Bill C-30
In dictatorial regimes, tyrants rule by manipulating prevailing public emotions. They use the smallest emotional opportunity to create draconian laws that take away the people’s rights and freedoms. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has certainly learned a thing or two from this modus operandi. He wants to use Luka Rocco
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Budget Bill C-38: A Conservative Insurgency Against Harper?
Earlier this week, the NDP and other Federal opposition parties released the findings of their Canada-wide public consultations on Stephen Harper’s Budget Implementation Act, Bill C-38. Yesterday, the parties submitted 1,300 amendments to the behemoth omnibus bill. Now a new opposition front, straight out of Harper’s Conservative world, is gathering
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Get with the program … um, what should we call Catholic bishops these days?
So the Ontario Legislature passed a bill that allows “Gay-Straight Alliances” in all schools that receive public funding. That’s both the non-sectarian schools and the Catholic (Roman or Eastern) schools. The wording of “Bill 13” (not sure yet what numbering it will have in the 2012 statutes) also shows that
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: The foot which rocks the (Con) cradle
I know, that’s a terrible pun. But the fact that two body parts which were hacked off a torso found in Montréal and then mailed to Conservative Party HQ — one actually got there, the other was intercepted in the mail — makes me wonder what message was being sent.
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Deny, deny, deny — Syria edition (and why sanctions aren’t enough)
This past weekend’s massacre in Houla, Syria was so uncommonly cruel in its scope that even Russia and Mainland China, which have been vetoing several resolutions due to their arms sales to Damascus, finally said enough is enough. At least 108 are dead, and quite a few Western states have
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Since when did one need a permit to demonstrate?
Consider: During the American civil rights struggle in the 1950s and 60s, virtually every southern state tried every trick in the book to maintain the racist status quo. One was a more than frequent law that said that one had to get a permit to have a demonstration. Since blacks
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Canada Crime Bill C10 hunger striker takes protest to Parliament Hill
MEDIA RELEASE OTTAWA, May 6, 2012 – Today marks the 53rd day of my indefinite hunger strike against Canada’s new draconian crime law, the deceptively christened “Safe Streets and Communities Act”, formerly omnibus crime Bill C10. My name is Obert … Continue reading →
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Special treatment for Conrad?
So Conrad Black … um, Baron Conrad Black is out of jail. On the one hand it’s good to see his time in prison has mellowed His Lordship out somewhat and that he’s actually starting to see some of the issues of a day with a much more open and
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Blast Furnace Canada Blog 2012-05-02 20:15:00
So today, a former exec at Ornge ™ was disputing the idea that her rapid rise from an ex-lifeguard to a top executive position there had nothing to do with her relationship with her boyfriend who ran the company. Perhaps she is telling the truth, but one can’t help
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: #HarperHistory: Canadians Respond to Stephen Harper’s NDP ‘Hitler’ comment
In Parliament yesterday, NDP leader Thomas Mulcair asked PM Stephen Harper whether or nor Canadian special forces would stay in Afghanistan beyond the 2014 withdrawal deadline. Harper’s answer: “The leader of the NDP, in 1939, did not even want to … Continue reading →
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