Brian Abrams is Not the Only Kingston Conservative Missing in Action

The Whig Standard ran a great editorial last week on our local Conservative candidate, Brian Abrams, who has been missing in action over the Prison Farm issue.

They believe this will hurt his chances in the next federal election.

Because this was not simply about this important issue, but the Conservative Party in general, who keep their MPs silenced, while they themselves keep far too many secrets.

How does this cut Brian Abrams' credibility out from under him? Because the issue has long grown beyond the merit of prison farms. Even people who couldn't have cared less about convict farmers six months ago are wondering why the Tories remain so secretive. With each episode, the Tories' arrogance is magnified in a riding where the Conservative candidate has been strangely silent through the most important federal political debate locally in years.

As lawyer for the Kingston Police and an ex-RCMP, I suppose Abrams stayed in hiding so as not to have to weigh in on the police brutality at the Prison Farm protests, which included the rough handling of an 88-year-old woman.

And since party policy is "law and order", he would not be allowed to have an opinion contrary to the American style incarceration planned by Stephen Harper.

And he would not be allowed to have an opinion on further tax cuts for the rich, or on education, healthcare or CPP. Or the horrendous treatment of our veterans, and our seniors.

But Brian Abrams is not the only Kingston Conservative missing in action. We have a senator, though not many are aware of it. A Conservative senator appointed by Liberal PM Paul Martin, because he tried to be fair. Big mistake.

Now when I say that Kingston has a senator, that should mean something, but it doesn't. I've never seen the man. He ran Abram's campaign last election, so his name was in the paper, but aside from that he's pretty much a "no-show".

Kingston also had a Nortel Plant and recently Segal was part of the neocon controlled senate who dashed the hopes of disabled ex-employees, who will now lose all benefits as of January 1.

These workers deserved better from Nortel’s discredited management, which botched their disability plan. But also they deserved better from the new Tory Senators who owe their jobs to Stephen Harper, and will get their own gold-plated pensions and full disability coverage courtesy of the Prime Minister’s munificence.

These Senators rejected a proposal by Senator Art Eggleton to grant the 400 disabled ex-Nortel employees preferred status over other creditors when the telecommunications conglomerate is finally wound up under court supervision. Many of them are sick and unemployable, and say they will have to go on welfare. Eggleton notes that dozens of other countries have stronger protections for long-term disability.

This story is heart wrenching.

Here's Segal's contact information. This happened in his back yard and he did NOTHING. Let him know how you feel. In fact drop a bit of Christmas cheer on any or all Conservative senators, whose only function is now to simply do what the big guy tells them to do.

We should not have to pay for this.