Brian Abrams Mourns the Loss of His Political Career. May it Rest in Peace

Every time I read a story about the closing of the prison farms; every time I shed a tear driving by the now empty fields that once held cattle, and every time I think of the police aggression toward the protesters, I become more determined to make sure that Brian Abrams never gets elected in the City of Kingston.

He represents everything that is wrong with this government. A government that turns it back on it's citizens and prefers the use of force to consultation.

Those cattle are gone with the exception of two:

Three hundred cows from Frontenac Institution have been sold off at auction in Waterloo. The sale at the Ontario Livestock Exchange began at 11 a.m and closed just after 4 o’clock today. There are reports two of the cows were purchased by a member of the Save Our Prison Farms group. The cows will be sent back to Kingston and will be given to a local farmer.

And Abram's political career went with them.

Harper Tries to Shoot the Messenger ... Again!

With the help of his Fox News North cohort, Kory Teneycke, Harper is trying to discredit Sheila Fraser just before she releases her reports which will no doubt reveal just how incompetent his government really is. Like we need a report for that.

“… it appears they [the Harper government] are using favoured media sources to try to damage the office’s [the Auditor-General’s office] credibility in advance of what are expected to be highly critical reports,” says Mario Lague in the memo, which was written Monday, and e-mailed to The Globe and Mail from an anonymous source.

Auditor-General Sheila Fraser, one of the most respected bureaucrats in Ottawa, is to release several reports soon, which the Lague memo says “will likely cast the government in a bad light.” These reports include of the infrastructure stimulus spending, the $1.3-billion on G8/G20 security “because of Stephen Harper’s terrible last-minute decision to hold the G8/G20 meetings in two places [Huntsville and Toronto],” Mr. Lague wrote.

He also notes that the Auditor-General is to look at the government’s “failure to tender what will ultimately be a $16-billion contract for F-35 jet fighters without any public discussion.” “As an independent officer of Parliament, the Auditor-General is one of the few public servants that the Conservatives cannot fire or directly pressure, something they normally do when they don’t like the facts brought forward,” Mr. Lague wrote. “So it appears they are using favoured media sources to try to damage the office’s credibility in advance of what are expected to be highly critical reports.”

I want these guys gone and I want an election now.

Why Brian Abrams Will Never Be a Member of Parliament

Watching yesterday as a tractor was mulching the fields at the Frontenac prison farm, I had to look away. It was like witnessing a murder, but being powerless to stop it.

This afternoon I went to a wedding shower and on our way we saw the protesters. People of all ages who are genuinely concerned with one of the most inhumane acts that this government has ever made.

Coming back it was pouring rain and traffic was slowed as a line up of cattle trucks were attempting to enter the prison property.

These brave men, women and children were sitting down in civil disobedience, in the pouring rain, blocking the entrance, while the police were positioning themselves.

In February 2009, the Correctional Service of Canada said it would close Canada's six prison farms operated across the country by March 2011. About 300 prisoners worked at the farms, and learned to take care of animals, harvest crops, cut meats, pasteurize milk and sort eggs. The products were sent to nearby prisons and leftovers were donated to local food banks.

To show how out of touch this government is, they claim that they want to "provide more relevant employment skills" to rehabilitate prisoners in contemporary trades. So far the only thing they are offering is janitorial services.

Farming is about more than tending to animals and planting crops. The inmates who work the farms learn how to repair machinery, keep books, and be responsible for living things. It's not a free ride. They are up at dawn as with any farmer.

Inmates are already receiving grief counselling. Grief counselling?

The Kingston Neoconservative candidate is Brain Abrams, and throughout the struggle to keep the farms open he has not showed his face once. Not once.

We will be making this an election issue, because it shows Kingstonians what kind of a representative he would be. He didn't show up because he isn't allowed to show up. As an MP for Kingston he will not be allowed to challenge anything his government does.

And when he starts campaigning I will make sure that everyone knows that he would not be going to Ottawa to represent us or anything that matters to our community.

So we must make sure that he NEVER goes to Ottawa.

Harper's Plan For Fire Sale of AECL May be Going up in Smoke

Just days after Jim Flaherty told New Yorkers that Canada was for sale and would be going cheap, and Guy Giorno promised an election if the senate doesn't rush through his ridiculous omnibus bill, Harper is finding that people are not lining up to buy a leaky reactor.

It remains uncertain whether the would-be buyers are willing to pay a price that Ottawa would find acceptable, including the assumption of AECL’s liabilities. And the announcement from New Brunswick undermines confidence in the company, although AECL’s call for private financing of new reactors had made it a long shot.

“I get the impression there’s not a heck of a lot of interest” in buying control of AECL, said Bryne Purchase, a former deputy minister of energy in Ontario and now a professor of energy policy at Queen’s University.

He added that any buyer would be unlikely to assume AECL’s liabilities, and might demand additional guarantees from Ottawa to support the company in the international marketplace.

Not to worry about government support. If Jim Flaherty can bail out our banks to the tune of 200 billion dollars, in exchange for 125 billion in "rotten paper", he'll do anything if it means sticking it to taxpayers again.

Wonder if we've got anymore of the Queen's stuff laying around they can pawn. We may need it.