Although I have written many posts on this topic, each new incident once again evokes in me a visceral reponse bordering upon hatred for this government. The Harper regime is back at it again, using the CRA to intimidate people who are critical of its policies or in any way
Continue readingTag: harper contempt for democracy
Politics and its Discontents: About That Fifth Columnist In Ottawa….
Star readers have much to say: Harper downplays concerns about trade deal, Sept. 27 It’s a dangerous world but Big Oil, multinationals, banks, the wealthy and his party’s masters can rest easy in the knowledge that Secret Agent Stephen Harper has their collective backs. He knows how to keep a
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Offered For Your Consideration
While King Stephen has grown positively garrulous with the American media, there’s one little detail he seems to have forgotten: H/t Graeme Mackay Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: On The Training of Marine Mammals (a.k.a. MPs)
As I mentioned in a blog post the other day, I am currently reading Tragedy in the Commons, a book that examines the gross deficits to be found in Canadian parliamentary democracy. One of the recurring complaints of the former MPs interviewed for the book is the lack of independence
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Tragedy In The Commons
I know that I am hardly alone in sometimes thinking that the insights and observations of progressives have a Cassandra-like quality to them; we think we can see patterns auguring ill for our country and our democracy, but warnings are largely ignored by a quiescent or alienated proportion of the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A New Season Beckons, But Nothing Changes
Many people think of September as the real beginning of the new year: kids go off to school, summer transitions to fall, fall fashions appear in the stores, and new careers are embarked upon. Sadly, our political culture seems resistant to change. True, this year there are municipal elections pending
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Time To Revisit The Question Of Mandatory Voting?
In her column today, Susan Delacourt suggests that it is. While my own opposition to mandatory voting, the reasons for which I outlined in an earlier post, remains unchanged, she does offer a rather tantalizing reason for its consideration: Some of the dumbing-down of discourse, in particular, has taken place
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Our Anti-Democratic Democracy
This morning, in my print edition of The Toronto Star, I saw the following headline: Canadian scientists to be placed in isolation. While it turned out to be a story about the evacuation of a Canadian medical team helping to fight Ebola in Sierra Leone, for a brief moment I
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Harper’s Reign Of Terror – A Closer Examination
While Stephen Harper’s attacks on charities have been followed here and elsewhere, the Star presents a good overview of how the offices of the CRA have been subverted by a vindictive regime that brooks no opposition to its neoliberal agenda. The article begins with the egregious case of CoDevelopment Canada,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Our Poisoned Political Culture
Whether true or not, Canadians can, I think, be forgiven for wondering, quite seriously, whether the Harper cabal was somehow involved in the ominous break-in at Justin Trudeau’s home while his family was asleep. A destabilizing and disturbing crime for anyone who has experienced such a violation, it is clearly
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Mission Accomplished.
Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh….. H/t Canadians Rallying to Unseat Stephen Harper Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Harper’s Reign Of Terror: Targeted Charities Begin To Fight Back
It was with a certain pleasure that I read in Monday’s Star that some international aid charities are banding together to challenge the Harper-directed CRA witch hunt into charities that promote views counter to government policy: A dozen such groups conferred last week about a joint strategy to present to
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Poilievre Declares War on "Radical Unions"
Posted by MoS, the Disaffected Lib: Pierre Backpfeifengesicht Poilievre has declared Conservative war on Canada’s “radical” unions and their electoral meddling. The Parliamentary Punk has sent out a letter asking for 5-dollar contributions to help the CPC fight back the union menace in the next general election. Poilievre has singled
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Harper’s Reign Of Terror – Part Six
The latest installment of this series illustrating the Harper regime’s subversion of the Canada Revenue Agency to punish nonprofits for opposing government policies also demonstrates its pathologically secretive nature. The following was recently reported in The Globe and Mail: Since Ottawa first started cracking down on political activities among charities
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Harper’s Reign Of Terror: Star Readers Respond
Stephen Harper’s attack on those charities that refuse to hew to the regime’s dogma and ideology is becoming increasingly recognized for what it is: the wanton, immoral, unethical and likely illegal actions of a martinet who will brook no opposing views. Lacking even a modicum of subtlety, his purpose is
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Urban Camouflage for Canada’s Soldiers?
The past dozen or so years have left most of us familiar with the pixelated camouflage pattern, pioneered in Canada, and worn by many nations’ soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Americans are now going back to a more traditional camouflage for their combat uniforms. Canada, however, is not. We
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Harper’s Reign Of Terror – Part Five
As in the previous installments, this post examines the Harper regime’s unrelenting attacks on nonprofits that in any way oppose or criticize its agenda. The latest target is CoDevelopment Canada (CoDev), whose website lists the following as its mission: CoDevelopment Canada is a B.C.-based NGO that works for social change
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: How To Stop Stephen Harper’s Use of The CRA As An Instrument Of Terror: The Beginnings Of A Plan
Lately I have been writing some posts on Stephen Harper’s reign of terror, his relentless attacks on charities that oppose his agenda. Groups as diverse as the United Church of Canada, Oxfam, and PEN Canada have fallen victim to this vindictive miscreant, undergoing audits thanks to the Prime Minister’s misuse
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Harper’s Reign of Terror – Part Four
Except, that is, in Harperland. The latest Orwellian edict to come down from the Harper-directed CRA, reported by The Winnipeg Free Press, is as follows: The Canada Revenue Agency has told a well-known charity that it can no longer try to prevent poverty around the world, it can only alleviate
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Harper’s Reign of Terror – Part Three
The prospect of being hanged focuses the mind wonderfully. – Samuel Johnson While I doubt that many within the Harper regime are literary types or schooled in the humanities, I suspect the above quotation or variants thereof represents the underlying spirit of their relentless attacks on nonprofits that oppose the
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