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Jack’s Death

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It seemed as though an old friend had died, even though I had never met him, never seen him except on television, knew only the public man, with his smile and his civilized approach to politics. I think that’s what I valued most about him: his civilized approach, his belief that we, collectively can do better, can be better than we are at present. And his great good humour, especially in the House of Commons, at a time when the general level of debate was wretched, and mean-spirited. We have lost a fine man.

I thought he was one election away from being Prime Minister.

Summer, cont.

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Summer:

Gardening: Our hot, very hot and mostly dry summer continues. The garden, all except the roses is loving it, since we are able to water it from the river that flows past our home. The roses fear they have been transplanted to the deep South and have shut down production until more reasonable conditions return. Daylilies, hostas, echinacea, clematis and blue mallow are the stars of the moment.

I planted delphinums and staked them moments before a battering thunderstorm went through, so they are standing and about to bloom. I understand they are short-lived, so I will buy more next year to ensure a good clump.

Writing: Finally the last revisions are done, and the Facepainter has gone off to be set for paper production. Meanwhile, I’m at work on the sequel. A new character has stepped forward and I have to find something for her to do.

Do you know the organization called Great Courses. They finally have released a dedicated Canadian catalogue and some of the professors will be Canadian as well. Find them at http://www.thegreatcourses.com/ I followed one of their courses called Building Great Sentences, and now I’m doing a 30 lecture series on Analysis and Critique, How to engage and write about anything. The lecturer is excellent, my only quibble being that the lecture ends too soon.

Italy: We’re talking with our travelling companions about a trip in the fall of 2012 that would see us spending a few days in Venice, while they celebrate their fortieth anniversary, and then a road trip to Vienna, where we spend a few days to a week.

I’ve been studying Italian, through Rosetta Stone for several years now, with a year’s break to learn some rudimentary Spanish. I began again at the beginning with Italian and now approach the end of the third dvd. I received four and five at Christmas so I will press on. Learning a language, besides good for travelling, is supposed to be good for brain health.

Politics: Very sad news about Jack Layton. To be struck down like that in his moment of achievement is truly tragic.

What is going on with the Americans? They are just recovering from an economic disaster and now want to plunge into another one. Where are the adults?

That’s about it: writing, gardening, learning. Retirement is great!

Ottawa cancels funding for Toronto theatre festival

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Ottawa cancels funding for Toronto theatre festival that presented terrorist play – The Globe and Mail.

Cost cutting is one thing; denying funding because a bureaucrat or politician is making decisions based on what some one said about a piece of art without actually seeing it is quite another. The first is just the way it goes; the second is a governmental attempt to control the arts, and indeed freedom of speech. Does the Harper government think that it was elected to make artistic judgements for all of us?

Saudi women: Some brave women of Saudi Arabia continue to make incursions against the status quo, the latest one aided by her husband, an imam, who taught her how to drive. It still astounds me that countries need to have religious police. Not that the same thing didn’t happen in the history of western nations, but it was several hundred years ago. This is the 21st century, and a woman in Saudi Arabia can’t leave the house without the permission of some one with male genitalia, her guardian, lest the dreaded religious police intervene and cart her off to jail.

A lovely weekend here, warm and sunny with a breeze to keep the bugs away, and a country to live in without fear. Happy Canada Day.

Old-time Politics

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Auditor blasts lack of transparency in doling out generous G8 funds – The Globe and Mail.

In the Ottawa Valley, prior to elections, the spending on the roads, where unemployed men could find some summer work, increased so much that locals knew before the writ was dropped that an election was coming. All of those men were expected to vote and did, for the party in power, that had bought the votes with road work, much of it un-needed–or so it was said.

The Globe and Mail article above gives details from the report, some of which are below, along with my opinion.

The Conservatives have taken it to a new level. In the Auditor-General’s report on G8 expenditures, tabled conveniently after the election, it becomes clear(as the process of funding was not) that large sums of money were dispensed by politicians alone. Not one civil servant was involved in the decisions. The civil service of course has to follow the rules. As Bob Rae said, quoted in the Globe  article above, “they just basically go  in a back room and cut up the funds.) They hid it, burying it in a bill to provide funds to relieve border congestion.

Now the Minister who spent all that money in his riding, Tony Clement, is the Minister responsible for forcing governmental cuts so they can balance the books. First they spend the money, then they use the deficit as an excuse to cut programmes they don’t like. It’s your money they’re playing these games with, and your services they’re going to cut. Does it sound fiscally prudent to you?

About that new level, it’s low. And it’s for four more years.

Saudi Women’s Rights

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http://www.amnesty.ca/SaudiArabia/5.php

A woman in Saudi Arabia, who had started or joined an online movement to allow women to drive, has been detained, along with her brother, after she put a video of herself driving on the internet. In 1990 a group of religious scholars issued a fatwah(edict) against women driving. Why? Who knows? Just another example of the inequality women endure in that country. The abhorrent guardianship  system that restricts women’s movements unless accompanied by a male “guardian” is another of the human right abuses that continue there.

I think the men of Saudi Arabia should be embarrassed and ashamed that they treat the women of their country like children, and allow religious police to arrest them, abuse them, beat them, force them into false confessions and sentence them to such inhumane punishments as lashing for such crimes as wearing “indecent” ie western clothing.

Sakineh

Sakineh remains in prison.

http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/zpravy/havel-launches-ai-campaign-in-support-of-political-prisoners/638683

The link above details the Amnesty campaign to free her and two other political prisoners. Havel, of the Czech republic, himself a former political prisoner believes his own release came much sooner because of voices raised from outside.

http://freesakineh.org/

Please sign the petition.

Saudi Women

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‘Saudi Women Revolution’ makes a stand for equal rights – CNN.com.

http://www.hrw.org/en/world-report-2011/saudi-arabia

The laws as they pertain in women in Saudi Arabia have so much potential for harm it’s difficult to know where to start. I fear for the safety of the brave women in the Saudi Women Revolution movement. It is intolerable in the 21st century that women, all the women in a country, are placed under the guardianship of a man. It doesn’t matter how competent she is, or how incompetent, avaricious, cruel or self-serving her brother, husband, father or son happen to be. The potential for all kinds of abuse is very high.

State-sponsered abuse as detailed in the Human Rights Watch report, such as lashing for the crime of “appearing in court without a male guardian” is abhorrent and primitive.  That woman went to jail as well as receiving 300 lashes. The male population treats its female population as though they were slaves. Some poor women actually seem to have a variation of Stockholm syndrome, claiming to “love their guardianship.”

I think we need to speak out against such human rights abuses whenever we can, as we did over the case of Sakineh in Iran.

Harper’s Quotations

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Tories collected Harper quotes that could come back to haunt him – The Globe and Mail.

Do all political teams do this: collect the sayings of their leader that could get him into trouble? These are not Mao’s Thoughts or Bartlett’s Quotations. These are statements, musings, if you will, of Harper’s over the years, compiled by his loyal staffers.

I wonder how they chose. They must know which are the issues that matter most to Canadians, which statements are likely to raise the ire of the average(not neocon) voter, and which ones to try to bury.

Take health care, the quotes in the Globe article come as no surprise. Harper, it seems to me, is first and foremost a man devoted to the idea of capitalism and the idea that it is cheaper to run a system with private money. It isn’t. We only have to look to our neighbours to the south to know that. Facts, awkward aren’t they?

How about law and order? He thinks we need more prisons and more people in them and he wants to set the time for the crime, based on what? Not facts.

What about statistics themselves? He doesn’t like those either. Facts again. His solution is to end the practice of 170 years and shut down the long form census. He thinks he knows better than the statisticians which method produces reliable data.

How about immigration:

You’ve got to remember that west of Winnipeg the ridings the Liberals hold are dominated by people who are either recent Asian immigrants or recent migrants from eastern Canada: people who live in ghettoes and who are not integrated into western Canadian society.” Report Newsmagazine, January 2001.

500 pages. The Globe only quoted a few of them.

Coalition

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The attack ads, and the language of war in the reporting of the campaign, the appeal to fear, the creation of panic, all of these are part of this election as they have been of the last several. I’m tired of it, and of the politicians who have such contempt for the voter. We haven’t had a discussion of the major problems in this country.When one starts, ie the Liberal discussion on health Care, Harper falls back on the  “oh-my-god they might form a coalition”.  I

t appears to me that most people don’t even know what a coalition is, or that it is the usual way of doing politics in many vibrant democracies. If parties won seats in proportion to their popular vote, we would all ready have a government that represented the majority of people in this country, and yes at least two of them would have to agree on how to govern. That means that the NDP concern for the social network, the Liberal concern for health care and the social programs of the Bloc, as well as the environmental agenda of the Greens would be taken into account when drafting policy.

Or perhaps the Conservatives could convince one of the others to join them.

We would be less likely to have a government that was unresponsive to the majority of the  people, reflecting only the views of the neo-con right.

But what was Ignatieff thinking, giving Harper a gift like this? I suppose he got into the habit while teaching to answer questions honestly, and so continues. Yes, under our system a coalition is possible. Will that happen? Would it mean the government was any less representative of the people’s will. i don’t think so, to either question.

Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

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Happy birthday, Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms! …and thanks for nothing, Stephen Harper

POSTED ON APRIL 17, 2011

The Liberal Party invited readers to share this post from their website.

I’m old enough now to have gone through many changes of Prime Minister, from Mike Pearson(the first one I can remember) to John Diefenbaker, to Pierre Elliott Trudeau–I first voted in his first election–to Brian Mulroney and Jean Chretien and so on. I have been inspired, enraged, alienated, hopeful and full of despair that the country would survive. But I never felt the leaders didn’t embrace our rights and freedoms until now.

The mistrust began with Harper’s first public statements and has gone on. The proroguing of parliament, the police on the streets during the G20/G8, and the treatment of citizens as though they were cattle, made me call enough. Many people think this election was for nothing. It wasn’t for nothing. The government has been held in Contempt of Parliament. That is constitutionally a very big deal, meaning the government tried some American-style politics, withholding information until the eleventh hour,  within our parliamentary system, and got caught. The loyal opposition has the right to information, whether Harper like it or not.

Look at the quote from 2011. Harper fails to understand that the Supreme Court is the check on the government and if he doesn’t like a ruling he has to go back to Parliament and change the law. If he can’t, that means the majority doesn’t agree with him. Too bad.

So I don’t trust him, certainly not with a majority.

Today marks the 29th anniversary of the adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Charter is universally treasured by all Canadians, guaranteeing their fundamental civil rights from infringement by any level of government.

There is one person who won’t be celebrating the Charter’s birthday, and that’s Stephen Harper.

Today, Stephen Harper committed to reinstate Bill C-49, legislation that targets refugees instead of human smugglers, and according to the Canadian Bar Association breaches the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Stephen Harper has never embraced the Charter:

“I agree that serious flaws exist in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and that there is no meaningful review or accountability mechanisms for Supreme Court justices.” (Stephen Harper,Globe and Mail, June 13, 2000)

“I consider the notwithstanding clause a valid part of the Constitution . . . It’s there to ensure that the courts themselves operate within the Charter and don’t become a law unto themselves.” (Stephen Harper, Canadian Press, May 15, 2004)

“‘We’re concerned and we think Parliament, not the court, should be making these decisions.’  Harper also agreed with Premier Ralph Klein’s stance that the Alberta government invoke the notwithstanding clause with respect to the decision.” (Stephen Harper on the Ontario Court of Appeal Decision that legalized same-sex marriage, Calgary Herald, June 13, 2003)

“‘Right from the beginning, the Charter has been controversial. There were a large number of politicians, a large number of provincial premiers who did not support that approach to civil liberties in this country.” (Stephen Harper, Kitchener-Waterloo Record, September 29, 1994)

Leaders Debate

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First I didn’t watch it all. I get tired of spin and “talking points” and mostly of Harper. I did see the exchange in which Ignatieff said :

“A majority? … Majorities are things you earn when you earn the trust of Canadian people and you haven’t earned the trust of the Canadian people because you don’t trust the Canadian people.”

He hit it square on as far as I am concerned. A few posts ago I went through the events this year that have upset me most, but it all comes down to this. Harper is a control-obsessed man, whose attitude is his way or the highway. I have always liked the Canadian history of compromise and negotiation. I don’t trust him to govern for all of us if he gets a majority. He sure didn’t when he had a minority.

How many more odd ideas like cancelling the long form census are hiding beneath that perfectly-coifed hair.

What about his insistence on following a punishment instead of rehabilitation agenda? He calls it law and order, but I see him ignoring facts, or bending them to fit his pre-conceived ideas.

And throwing young women out of his rallies. How’s that for controlling?

If we must have a minority, I hope it’s a Liberal one. After all, most people in this country vote for left of centre parties.