Five years ago this week I started Democracy Under Fire due to concern of the way in which the new Conservative Government was ignoring democratic and parliamentary conventions. This was just after their reelection as a result of the lowest voter turnout in Canadian electoral history, with only 22% of
Continue readingTag: Harpers Legacy
The Cracked Crystal Ball II: The Future Of The CPC
Andrew Coyne made an excellent point in his column about the Manning Networking Conference that the Manning Centre is hosting in Ottawa: So this is what a Conservative convention looks like. After that bizarre lockdown in Calgary last fall – reporters harassed and penned in at every turn, the prime minister’s
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Disappointing … But Unsurprising
In light of the Harper Government(tm)’s ongoing assault on science in this country – especially anything resembling the environment – it comes as little surprise that the government is currently not meeting its own legislated obligations with respect to endangered species. In a case covering four species that Justice Anne
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: The Senate Expenses Mess Continues
So, a bunch more Conservative Senators have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. In one case, Senator Scott Tannas of Alberta billed $12,000 to taxpayers to fly himself and his wife in executive class to Ottawa for a two-day trip. Another senator, from Toronto, was one of
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: C-24 In Conjunction With C-23 As Instruments Of Voter Suppression
There has been a lot of attention on Bill C-23 the last week or so, and in particular the parts of it which appear to be tools that can be used for voter suppression. In discussing the Voter ID requirements of Bill C-23, I became very concerned that this government
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Bill C-23: Part VI: The Theft Of Democracy – Muzzling The Chief Electoral Officer
Wading through C-23 is feeling more and more like trying to pick one's way through a minefield. Every step, you half expect to find something that is going to go "click" … followed by a very loud bang. Today, I bring you what the Conservatives are doing to the ability
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: The (UN)Fair Elections Act
As is usual with so many of the Bills proposed by the Harper Regime the ‘Fair’ Elections Act has so many changes buried in the fine print that it is almost impossible for all but the most dedicated and knowledgeable researchers to really understand the implications of it all. Whilst
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Stealing Democracy: Part IV – Marc Mayrand Responds
When it comes to reviewing Bill C-23, as much as I enjoy exploring the labyrinthine language of legalese, I am also interested in what the current head of Elections Canada has to say – after all he’s spent the better part of the last decade in that space. Pierre Poilievre,
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: … It Gets Darker
A break from analyzing Bill C-23 today, but not a break from covering the darkness that is Harper’s shadow. Today’s instalment comes in the form of the obviously politically motivated witch-hunt that the CRA is engaging in with environmental organizations in this country. This isn’t particularly new, the Conservatives have
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Bill C-23: The Theft Of Democracy Part III
I continue my analysis of Bill C-23 in depth, largely out of the same horror and curiosity that goes with looking at a traffic accident. Except in this case, it more to shed light upon the various little poison pills and land mines that The Harper Government is slipping into
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Bill C-23: The Theft Of Canada’s Democracy Part II
I have not by any means finished my analysis of this bill and what it is setting up. However, a lot of other smart writers have been going over the bill too, and they have much to say which bears summarizing and considering. First, over at the Toronto Star, Chantal
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: On Mass Surveillance
The revelation this week that CSEC has the capability to monitor the movements of Canadians simply by gathering some metadata from the traffic that goes by on public networks raises a lot of interesting questions that are worth discussing. In an e-mail conversation on the matter, the following question was
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Harper Now Has His Own Secret Police
A feature of totalitarian states around the world is a “secret” police force that is engaged in spying on a nation’s citizens and keeping them in line with implicit threats of “legal action”. Most notorious among these would be East Germany’s Stasi, but there are many examples. In Canada, it
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: The War on Information Continues.
It has been revealed that in addition to the‘consolidation’ of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans libraries, where reports say that despite assurances that much of the material would be digitized a large number of books and papers have been destroyed without such backup, the Libraries of Heath Canada are
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Robocalls Revived
With Michael Sona’s trial expected later this year, the RoboCalls scandal has once again booted up, reminding Canadian voters of the corruption in the 2011 election. The most recent thing to fall out of the back of that horse? Apparently one of Sona’s co-conspirators has just been granted immunity from
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Kim Sung Harper
Wow … just wow. I never would have believed it if I hadn’t seen it. I still can’t quite believe that it’s being done in Canada, to Canadians … at our expense. It seems that Harper has found a use for the money that he is “saving” by shutting down
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Silence of the Labs
Silence of the Labs is the title given to the Fifth Estate presentation coming up on CBC this Friday which anyone concerned with the future of Canadian scientific research, indeed the very future of Canada, should make a point of watching. Whilst I do not know what their investigative reporting
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: 2014 – The year we ‘loose’ our democracy?
Whilst some say that it is already gone and that we are being subject to an Oligarchy well on its way to a Dictatorship, a view that I find it hard to argue against, there is still hope. The recent push back by a small number of Conservative MP’s gives
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: No, Yaakov Roth, The Supreme Court of Canada Is Not Overstepping Its Boundaries
I see the Harper PMO must have found another muppet to write opinion pieces for them. In the National Post, we find Yaakov Roth expounding on the “problems” he has with the way the Supreme Court of Canada has been ruling on such matters as safe injection sites and prostitution.
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Deflect, Spin, Misdirect: Preston Manning and the PMO
Apparently, Preston Manning must have received new orders from the PMO. In yesterday’s Globe and Mail, we found Mr. Manning opining on the supposed issue of ethics in the Parliamentary Press Gallery. The upshot of Manning’s arguments is that the whole Duffy affair wouldn’t have happened if the Parliamentary Press
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