An obituary notice appeared in the paper asking mourners in lieu of flowers, to instead vote for the Liberals. Some thought it was a hoax, but indeed it was not.
When John Bolan’s family sat down to write his obituary last week, they decided to give him one last chance to convince undecided voters to pledge their support to the Liberals in the upcoming federal election.
The lifelong Ontario civil servant died unexpectedly after surgery in Toronto on Thursday at the age of 78, and had spent most of his life as an ardent Liberal supporter. What better time to give him a platform than when all of his friends were engaged readers?
And Margaret Atwood gives us a paper napkin guide to the election. And she concludes: "Then vote, and — as they say — cherish the moment. People elsewhere are dying for it."
Following is an excellent video on strategic voting:
“Just a minute!” you say. “You want me to commit to an unknown, very large sum? That’s not fair! And it’s not competent, either.” “More bickering!” he says. “We need stability!” “But I might have to go on paying huge sums for decades!” you say. “We’re already up to our necks in debt! I’ll have to give up other things – I won’t be able to pay for the doctor, or support for special needs, or drinking water, or care for the elderly, or the kids’ education, or … and what happens if there’s a pandemic, or a natural catastrophe such as an earthquake, and you’ve already spent the money that could have helped in a disaster?”
“You are a very negative person,” he says. “You are not welcome here.” “Where is here?” you say. “In my country,” he says. “These are my mountains, this is my hockey, this is my flag. Mine! All mine! And I’m stamping my image on all of it!” “I like those icons, too,” you say, “but I think they should be shared with everyone, don’t you?” “What is this ‘shared’ of which you speak?” he says. “I believe in the individual and nothing but. Talk to the hand! Weak to the wall!”
It's very funny and well worth a read.
I love this: “Once I really get the whip hand, I will never have to answer another question from anyone. Not one question. Not ever again.” Funny but sadly true if Harper were to win a majority.
I'm not talking about the weight loss show but Kory Teneycke has won a coveted spot in Canadian Business magazine, as one of their biggest losers.
Yah think?
Kory Tenecyke is Canadian Business magazine’s “Big Loser” in its Oct. 11 edition, the latest in a media pile-on of the former Harper communications chief. The 36-year-old, who was an ethanol lobbyist before joining the Prime Minister’s Office, is featured prominently on a double-page spread headlined: “Winners & Losers: This week’s scorecard of ups and downs.”
And joining him, though without the hmmm ... recognition ... is his former boss Pierre Peladeau, who has backed down from promising to shove Fox News North down our throats. As Murray Dobbins says:
It’s quite a come down. From in-your-face arrogance to a total retreat in a matter of a few months, the big money behind Quebecor’s determination to set up a Fox news North is now looking pretty humble.
There’s no doubt that part of this is overreach on the part of Pierre Karl Peladeau and his junkyard-dog front man Kory Teneycke. But mostly it is a huge victory for every Canadian who took time to write, email, phone or other wise protest this grotesque plan to move Canadian political culture to the far right. And a victory in particular for Avaaz the on-line social movement that flushed Teneycke and his bully tactics into the open.
Chalk two up for the good guys.
Could this be a sign? Teneycke attacked Margaret Atwood, she fought back, he got fired (he says "resigned"). Teneycke went after Lawrence Martin claiming that he lied in his book Harperlandwhen he said that our self-proclaimed dictator was going to Queen in he didn't get his way. Lawrence produced a tape and Teneycke shut up and went into hiding.
There is a disturbing pattern with the Harper government whenever anyone challenges them. They put them in their cross hairs and then go on the attack. It usually works.
Now we have another brave soul refusing to be victimized. One of Canada's best authors and journalists Lawrence Martin was subjected to the usual nonsense after the release of his book Harperland.
The Prime Minister's Office is, predictably, dismissing Lawrence Martin's fascinating new book -- Harperland: The Politics of Control -- as the work of a Liberal sympathizer.
This ignores Martin's crusading pursuit of past Liberal misdeeds, from Shawinigate to the sponsorship scandal, but, also, the intriguing fact that most of the author's sources are former intimates of Stephen Harper's. And they're speaking on the record.
"Former" is the operative word, of course. No one who wants to keep their job, or pursue a career in the capital, can afford to be openly critical of this wary, self-protective prime minister. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews illustrated the approved technique recently, when asked about federal funding for hockey arenas: "Whatever the leader said, I stand by what the leader said."
And when Kory Teneycke denied telling Martin that Harper was going to go see the Queen if the Governor General refused his request to prorogue, he simply denied it.
He forgot that Lawrence Martin is smarter than the whole lot of them.
Now that that's out of the way, I wanted to throw in my two cents on Levant, George Soros and Fox News North.
There has been an ongoing battle since we first learned that Stephen Harper used taxpayer money to hire Ari Fleischer and take Kory Teneycke to lunch, so he could import an all nasty right-wing nonsense, all the time, Fox News station in Canada.
Teneycke passed his taxpayer funded interview and was chosen to head it up.
And to prove that he could be just as vile as Glen Beck, he attacked anyone not on board with the project, including the wonderful Margaret Atwood.
But then when the advocacy group, AVAAZ started a petition to block special licensing for the station, Teneycke went a little too far, and appeared to have been complicit in some underhanded sabotage. He resigned and has been replaced by someone who isn't nuts.
But Ezra Levant, another Glen Beck wannabe, not content with just attacking Margaret Atwood and AVAAZ, wrote a column attacking one of the philanthropists who has donated to the organization in the past. The billionaire George Soros.
Billionaire George Soros has made a living wrecking the lives of others. Now he wants to mess with Canadianscried Levant.
And in the article he made libelous statements, suggesting that Mr. Soros collaborated with the Nazis in Hungary in 1944, to save himself. He also claimed (not merely suggested but claimed) that Soros stole Jewish possessions and that he was part of a group that actually murdered his own people.
It was pretty out there. It was also completely false. George Soros's only crime as a 13 year old living in a Nazi occupied country, was to pose as a Christian to save himself. He has been very candid about this and you would be hard pressed to find anyone not willing to do the same thing under those circumstances.
It's called survival, not betrayal.
Sun media was forced to apologize, and George Soros is now apparently going to sue both the paper and Levant. Levant should never have written it and the Sun should never have printed it. They knew that but did it anyway. I hope they get nailed to the wall.
So Why Did They Target George Soros?
Many people donate money to AVAAZ, so why did they single out George Soros? I think it's because he donates a lot of money to humanitarian causes and is everything Neocons hate.
- He has been critical of George Bush and called his administration the "Bubble of American Supremacy." Soros said the Bush administration "violated human rights and damaged American security by invading Iraq and deposing the regime of Saddam Hussein. 'The idea that we can impose our will on the world is really just the wrong idea,'" he said, vowing "to do everything in his power to prevent Bush from winning re-election. He grew up under an oppressive regime and saw the damage that Imperialism can do.
- He has been critical of the country of Israel (He is Jewish and not anti-Semitic)
- He provided funds to help black students attend the University of Cape Town in apartheid South Africa.
- Provided funds to a group campaigning against the death penalty
- He is one of 80 wealthy liberals who have pledged to contribute $1 million or more apiece to fund a network of think tanks and advocacy groups to compete with the potent conservative infrastructure built up over the past three decades.
The man that Harper and Teneycke wined and dined to get this station, Rupert Murdoch, is also a billionaire. And he has used his media outlet to not only advance right-wing causes but squelch negative press.
For instance, when he was on the board of Philip-Morris, he routinely withheld any stories that revealed the dangers of smoking. From a 1985 PM internal report: As regards the media, we plan to build similar relationships to those we now have with Murdoch's News Limited with other newspaper proprietors. Murdoch's papers rarely publish anti-smoking articles these days. To sum up, then, on using our natural allies. We have made a start; we have proved that it can be done; we have found that they can be a very effective force; and we intend to do more in the future.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that tobacco can "wreck lives".
And Canadians are not the only ones rejecting Fox "News" style media. The UK is also fighting against the spread of this disease.
Media monopoly: It's time politicians said no to Rupert Murdoch Vince Cable must refer the bid for BSkyB to Ofcom
Rupert Murdoch's Sky takeover should be blocked, Vince Cable told: Claire Enders writes to business secretary arguing he should stop News Corp buying 60.9% of BSkyB it does not already own
And let's see if this doesn't sound like what happened in Canada, after it was discovered that Murdoch's News Corp. had hacked phone lines to get what they wanted.
It was all looking so good for Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. Transition to new government achieved with a few favours owed on account of switching sides to support the eventual winner. Better still, a company stalwart at the new prime minister's side – director of communications and key adviser, no less. All in all, really very well placed to manage the political side of News Corp's fortunes as a major (and growing) force in British and international media.
Now scroll back to News International's defence of its conduct. Its position was based on two issues: that phone hacking was restricted to one "rogue" journalist and one private investigator and that the man then in charge – the editor, Andy Coulson – knew nothing about it but nevertheless did the right thing by resigning.
A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada
" ... we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children." - Martin Luther King Jr.
The above was part of a speech made by Dr. King on August 28, 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It has become a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement.
Many people believe that the Religious Right or Moral Majority, came about because of Roe vs Wade, the case that legitimized abortion. But it did not. It was created in response to the civil rights movement. According to Rabbi Caryn Broitman, it was knee jerk to:
... the Supreme Court decision that ruled that institutions that practiced segregation would forfeit their tax exempt status. This decision led to the withdrawal of tax-exempt status for Bob Jones University, who among other things, did not admit Blacks, and when they did, had a policy against interracial dating. It was race, as well as the desire to maintain control over evangelical institutions, and not abortion, that led to the establishment of the religious right. (1)
This was a shame, because it was the exact opposite of anything true Evangelicals ever stood for:
In fact, before the civil war Evangelicals in the North were leading progressives whose piety gave rise to abolitionism, the female seminary movement, and prison reform. William Jennings Bryan, one of the most famous evangelicals, devoted himself to causes such as the Peace Movement and women’s suffrage and was a leading proponent of the progressive income tax. (1)
But in the same way that the Religious Right hijacked the Republican Party in the United States, they have also hijacked Evangelism, turning it into faith based hatred.
And while the majority of Evangelicals do not follow this dogma, the only ones being heard, are those making all the noise.
This year on the anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, Glen Beck from Fox News organized a "Restoring Honor" 'Tea Party' march, declaring that President Obama was not doing enough to unite the country.
The sentiments were honorable, but the rhetoric was subterfuge. This was a predominantly white people's march against a black president. And in the same way that the original Boston Tea Party was a merchant's revolt against paying taxes, this was a corporate funded revolt against the proposed removal of George Bush's massive corporate tax cuts.
Nothing more, nothing less.
And just as the original Tea Party revellers disguised themselves in black paint and native regalia, these Tea Party revellers are masked in "love of country" and "freedom".
It is Republican political strategy. Advance your cause by exploiting those who will be hurt the most by corporate greed.
And while the majority of Americans do not follow this policy, the only ones being heard, are those making all the noise.
American news satirist, Jon Stewart, is tired of all the noise, and planning his own rally, at the same Lincoln Memorial. He hopes to restore sanity to the United States. Sanity that has been threatened by the Religious Right. Sanity that is being threatened by Fox News. And sanity that is being threatened by the likes of Glen Beck.
Stewart's event is designed is to counter what he called a minority of 15% or 20% of the country that has dominated the national political discussion with extreme rhetoric. News of Stewart's rally came at the end of an extraordinary week. It began with a narrowly avoided Qur'an-burning on the anniversary of the 11 September terrorist attacks and ended with former Alaska governor and right wing darling Sarah Palin stoking suspicions that she will run for the White House in 2012. (2)
His country is in big trouble and he has recognized that the only ones being heard, are those making all the noise.
Canada is not only being threatened by Fox News North, but by the Tea Party North, as the only screeching voices belong to the likes of Kory Teneycke, Ezra Levant, John Baird and Dean Del Mastro. And the only noise is coming from our own Religious Right, inspired and financed by the American Religious Right. And the noisy voices of the gun lobby, inspired and financed by the U.S. NRA, are taking on our values as a peaceful country.
And let's not forget the noise of the American company Lockheed-Martin, who are demanding that we build fighter jets. Or the U.S. private prison entrepreneurs, who are demanding that we build more prisons for imaginary prisoners. Or the American anti-tax movement that has Jason Kenney in their clutches.
Or the Republican strategist Frank Lutz, who is demanding that the Harper government engage in divisive politics to turn Canadians away at election time. Or American John Hagee who is now writing our foreign policy. Or James Dobson who wants to tell us who we can marry. Or newly minted American David Frum who wants to tell us who to hate.
We need to steer the conversation from guns, prisons and fighter jets, to issues that are important to us. Things like health care, and an aging population. Homelessness, child poverty. And rights. Basic human rights that guarantee equal treatment for us all, regardless of race, religion or gender.
Will we continue to allow the Harperites to monopolize the conversation, and demonize anyone who doesn't agree with them? Haroon Siddiqui is right. Stephen Harper needs to be dethroned. But that's not enough.
Canadians need to find their voices, or risk having them drowned out by too much noise.
Sources:
1. Yom Kippur Sermon 5769: A critical analysis of the Jewish alliance with the Christian Right regarding Israel, By Rabbi Caryn Broitman, Yom Kippur 2008
A young offender appeared in a Kingston courtroom on Monday to answer to charges of public mischief. Unfazed by the entire process, she showed no remorse. While waiting to appear she sat on the floor and sketched, then brazenly stood in line for legal aid. An all too common story of an underage criminal, taking comfort in the fact that they would be given a "slap on the wrist" and not have to pay for their actions. In fact throughout her incarceration, she sang. The nerve.
And as her story was told in our local paper, they were not allowed to publish her name because of her age, so referred to her simply as "Jane Doe". I don't like that name because it is more often used to describe an unidentified female corpse. I'm going to call her, "our young heroine".
Because her crime of public mischief was standing against the injustice of the prison farm closures. "I love nature and shutting down the prison farms is bad for the community," the 14 year old said. "It's bad for the planet." She said she knew she risked arrest when she decided to join the blockade.
She was the youngest person among 24 people hauled away by police because they blocked a road into Frontenac Institution on Aug. 8 and 9, in a failed bid to stop cattle trucks from removing the prison farm's dairy herd from the property. "I thought we were just sitting on prison property ... " (1)
As she was entering the courtroom, she was presented with a gift, sent from a woman who knows a lot about advocacy and civil disobedience, Margaret Atwood. It was a signed copy of her critically acclaimed book The Handmaid's Tale: "Dear unknown arrested girl, congratulations on your courage. It could have been worse, read on" in reference to the oppressive society imagined in her book, in which women are subjugated and controlled.
Margaret Atwood had passed the torch that our young heroine had already picked up.
Another Torch Bearer
Olga Hudson was born in Manitoba. As a young girl she often marched in protest with her mother. Marched against unfair labour practices, and the abuse of veterans. And marched for women's rights. In fact Manitoba was the first province in Canada to grant women the right to vote.
Olga's mother had passed the torch of social conscience onto her daughter, and as a result she said that she has always been active in social causes. But in early August of this year she was arrested for the first time. Olga is 87 years old.
She wasn't frightened at the blockade, though police treated her roughly. She was hauled to a paddy wagon, shackled at the legs and handcuffed with plastic zip-tie style restraints. "They hurt because they were narrow strips of plastic," she said. She was put into a paddy wagon and into a steel compartment. "Every time they turned a corner, I was terrified I would knock myself out on the metal," she said.
At the police station, she said a senior officer was clearly upset with officers who felt it was necessary to shackle her. She spent more than four hours alone in a holding cell before she was released. (2)
But she had followed news reports about the save-the-prison-farms movement and knew that this was where she needed to be. Her family must be so proud, as she is passing the torch of justice on to them.
And Still More Torch Bearers
Nik Gravonic had worked as a federal parole officer for almost thirty years, and had seen firsthand the value of the prison farm program. So he joined the protests that aimed to prevent the removal of the farm animals.
Nik Gravonic said he passed out during the paddy wagon ride to the police station from fumes that entered his compartment. "I was getting the fumes from the motor," said Gravonic, 63, ... He was taken to the hospital and then was returned to the police holding cells.
Gravonic said it was an unsettling experience to be arrested. "Probably the most eerie sensation I've had in my life was when the officer put the handcuffs on me because he was in control and I wasn't in control anymore," he said. Gravonic said he was treated harshly. "(The officer) said if I didn't keep my mouth shut, I would be charged with resisting arrest and I would also be charged with assault," he recalled. "So (he asked) did I want three charges or one charge, so I kept my mouth shut." (2)
Don Misener is a retired United Church minister, who had served as a prison chaplain for 16 years. He too saw the value of the prison farms: "They're incredibly important in terms of helping inmates decompress from years of incarceration and develop the kind of compassion and self-discipline that's crucial for their being able to function effectively in society."
Misener had never been arrested before. "I just can't conscience just seeing it wiped away," he said. "I think it's time to stand up and do what we can for the sake of our society and our grandchildren." (2)
These two men have passed a torch of compassion and insight.
The Prison Farm Closures are a Human Rights Issue
Philosopher Richard McKay Rorty once said that human progress was "an increase in our ability to see more and more differences among people as morally irrelevant." That notion is fundamental when speaking of human rights. Because human rights have little to do with being politically correct and everything to do with treating humans as humans.
In If This Is a Man, Primo Levi describes being interviewed by Dr. Pannwitz, chief of the chemical department at Auschwitz.' Securing a place in the department was a matter of life or death: if Levi could convince Pannwitz that he was a competent chemist, he might be spared the gas chamber. As Levi stood on one side of the doctor's desk, in his concentration camp uniform, Dr. Pannwitz stared up at him.
Levi later remembered: "That look was not one between two men; and if I had known how completely to explain the nature of that look, which came as if across the glass window of an aquarium between two beings who live in different worlds, I would also have explained the essence of the great insanity of the third German [reich]."
Here was a scientist, trained in the traditions of European rational inquiry, turning a meeting between two human beings into an encounter between different species. (3)
I'm not trying to compare the prison farm closings to the Holocaust, but am only drawing a parallel to one human being looking at another human being as from a different "species". This thought process allowed slave owners to look on their human holdings as property, not men, women and children. And in many ways a penal system allows the same distinctions.
I read a comment the other day, and I wish I could find the source again. But it was from someone who I believe had worked as a guard at the Frontenac Institute. He spoke of the relationship between the "staff" and the "inmates" and how it had been broken down.
The guards did not wear uniforms and had the same dirt under their fingernails as their charges. They worked as equals getting an important job done. And as the inmates toiled daily alongside guards, they found common ground and their differences became "morally irrelevant".
The Harper government has stated that these inmates don't learn marketable skills. What can be more marketable or beneficial than that? Tasks can be taught, but what the prison farms gave them, can only be learned through dealing on a day to day basis, with people who pass on their values.
Ottawa has refused to release any reports or documents to substantiate the claim [that they are losing 4 million dollars annually]. Correctional Service Canada refused to release any documents in response to an Access to Information request filed last year by the Whig-Standard seeking the latest internal audits of the prison farms. (2)
Ghandi said that "civil disobedience is the assertion of a right which law should give but which it denies..." All the people I mentioned above understood that. And they were not alone. A great many people stood in protest against this tyrannical decision.
People from all walks of life: farmers, teachers, ministers, nuns, lawyers, mothers, fathers, grandparents and children. Singers, authors, professors, you name it, they were there. And two people who led the charge, Dianne Dowling and Jeff Peters, are true heroes and true humanitarians. They are also both farmers, who took time out of their busy schedules to fight for Justice, and they have passed the torch of determination.
Stephen Harper often speaks of "ordinary people". "Ordinary people don't like the arts". "Ordinary people want more prisons" ....
But he would never understand the people involved in this movement, because they are not "ordinary".
Sorry Mr. Teneycke, but if it looks like a duck and acts like a duck ...
And if it looks like a Fox and acts like a Fox ...
You can wrap this up in the Canadian flag if you want, but it's still Republican nonsense. Have your station, sell ads, and go broke. It will always be Fox News North, and will earn the same respect as the National Enquirer.
But to suggest that most of the people who signed the petition are American is rather misleading, is it not? How would you know that?
Their site was hacked, though I'm sure that's just a coincidence.
However, one thing you will not do is attack Margaret Atwood. If you could write like her you wouldn't be flogging trash. And if you were half as Canadian as she, you wouldn't be importing American garbage.
Margaret Atwood is taking a lot of heat from our right-wingers, over her comments about Fox News North.
“Of course Fox & Co. can set up a channel or whatever they want to do, if it's legal etc.,” she told The Globe and Mail in an email. “But it shouldn't happen this way. It's like the head-of-census affair – gov't direct meddling in affairs that are supposed to be arm's length – so do what they say or they fire you. “It's part of the ‘I make the rules around here,’ Harper-is-a-king thing,” she wrote.
Her involvement sparked a debate on Twitter with conservative blogger Stephen Taylor and Sun Media’s Ottawa bureau chief, David Akin, Tuesday night. Both men say she is accusing the Sun – which is seeking to launch a right-wing TV channel – of “hate speech.”
But it's not about their right to peddle hatred, like their American counterpart, but the fact that they want all cable subscribers to pay for it, whether we want it or not. That is a violation of our freedoms. As suggested by the petition:
“Prime Minister Harper is trying to push American-style hate media onto our airwaves, and make us all pay for it. His plan is to create a ‘Fox News North’ to mimic the kind of hate-filled propaganda with which Fox News has poisoned U.S. politics. The channel will be run by Harper’s former top aide and will be funded with money from our cable TV fees!”
The bulk of our media has already moved to the right, so personally I wonder why we need this nonsense 24/7. But if they are determined to launch this station, they can pay for it themselves. Sell it if they can. But they know they can't so instead they are going to force it on us.
But more importantly, it's about Harper's interference in an arms length agency, trying to force CRTC to give in to his demands. Says Atwood:
“Some people signing the petition object to the expected content. I object to the process,” she told The Globe. “It's the [prime ministerial] pressure on yet another civil servant that bothers me. These folks are supposed to be working for the taxpayer, not the PM.”
As an American journalist visiting my wife's relatives in Canada, I've always been struck by how ardently the country's political discourse focused on substance — the budget, health care, schools, roads — with little of the cheap theatrics and angry divisiveness of U.S. politics and punditry. Reading and listening to the Canadian news media during those family trips could be a tad boring, but it also was touching, like remembering your earnest grade-school civics teacher lecturing about the wonders of the American democratic process.
But in my visit this past summer, I noticed that the tone of Canada suddenly had changed. There was a nastier edge to the commentary. There were not-so-subtle appeals to racism and xenophobia, references to Muslim neighbourhoods in Quebec as “Quebecistan” and to Lebanese-Canadians as “Hezbocrats,” a play on the Muslim group Hezbollah. To someone who has covered U.S. politics for three decades, there was a shock of recognition.
Standing out starkly against the bland traditions of Canadian governance was the pugnacious 'tude of American political combat, wedge issues pounded in with a zeal that put the goal of winning and holding power over everything else. It was as if a virus that had long infected the people south of the border had overnight jumped containment and spread northward establishing itself in a new host population.
And things have only gotten worse. When was the last time we debated anything that mattered to Canadians? Poverty, homelessness, health care, the environment, our aging population? I can't even remember.
It's all about guns, super prisons and fighter jets. Canadians who work abroad are being marginalized. Intelligence is being denounced as "elite" and facts are now the enemy.
I'm so tired of it all. I want to be a tad boring again and I don't want to pay for Fox News North since I have no intention of ever watching it.
Peter Van Loan, minister of Crime and Punishment, was ready to head out, but had just one more task to perform before leaving. He crossed the room toward an array of video screens, and with remote in hand, changed the scenes from "Save the Prison Farms" activists, to animals in distress. This was his favourite part of the day, where he could view the effects of his arbitrary decisions.
After several engrossed minutes, he shut off the screens, smiled and left the room, clearly enjoying the fruits of his labour.
Meanwhile, in Kingston Ontario, the cattle at Frontenac Institute were huddled together in the barn. Rumours abounded that they may soon be leaving their familiar dwellings. And though most refused to believe it, there was no mistaking the change in the men who came to look after them everyday. Word was that many were now receiving grief counselling.
"Grief over what" asked a demure little Heifer.
"Over us, stupid. I heard them talking. We are to be sold."
"How can we be sold? This is our home. I was born here and so were my parents, and their parents before them."
"Doesn't matter. I heard it had something to do with the country's loss of dem ... dem ...democy ...."
One of the larger Holsteins, who had already settled into it's bed of straw, got up and approached the group. "Democracy, my dear. I'm not sure what it is but it has something to do with a fair and just society. That's what they said. A man named Harper suspended democracy, and no democracy means no justice, and no justice means that we can now be sold to the highest bidder."
The cattle slumped and all settled into their beds, but there would be little sleeping that night. And in the darkness, came the sound of a lone bovine voice, singing barely above a whisper, but the words were heard by all:
Beasts of Kingston, beasts of Frontenac, Beasts of this great land and clime, Hearken to my joyful tidings Of the golden future time.
Soon or late the day is coming, Tyrant Harper shall be o'erthrown, And the fruitful fields of Frontenac, Shall be trod by us again.
But unfortunately, the uproar awoke Van Loan and Harper, whose ears are too big, and hearts too small. They seized their guns and were ready to react, until Stockwell Day brought them to their senses. "Wait men. Don't be hasty. We'll let them suffer a little more. You don't want to end the fun too soon."
And across the fields and highways, the melody reached another pair of ears. Stormythe donkey knew just what he had to do. But for now he must get his rest.
CHAPTER TWO
Stormy awoke to the sound of loud voices. His friend Jeff Peters was on the phone: "We'll fight this. They are not going to get away with this. It is not just about those prison farms, but this is an assault on Canadian farmers and the entire justice system."
He knew Jeff would come through. And all the others in the room were just as determined. Stormy had allies. All that was left was to draw up a battle plan.
Meanwhile at Frontenac Institute, the cattle were once again huddling in groups, pondering their future. They had noticed that the men were especially kind that morning. An extra little tickle behind the ear. One more pat on the rump. They liked it but couldn't help feeling a sense of dread.
"They know something, but are not telling us what it is."
"I told you guys. We are being sold. I hear things."
"Stop scaring the young ones. We've heard your rumours before. Remember when you had us convinced that they were experimenting with five legged calves. Do you see any five legged calves around here?" Walking away, the heifer just shook her head. "They'll see. I'm right. I know I'm right."
In Ottawa, things were heating up. The opposition parties demanded answers. Where was the proof that the farms were no longer sustainable? What alternative rehabilitation programs did the Reformers have in mind?
"Shhhhhh." They were told. "We answer to no one."
"But all experts agree that ..."
"There's that word experts again ... experts'. And 'facts'. Do you think we are concerned with 'facts' or what 'university types' have to say? Our base wants the farms gone, so they will be gone. End of"
Mark Holland reminded the Reformers that Canadians from all walks of life opposed their decision, and they deserved answers. But it was no use. As Wayne Easter reminded us, the buffoons had dreamt of super prisons and they were going to build super prisons, even if Canada did not have enough criminals to fill them. Said he:
The former Minister of Public Safety, Peter Van Loan, was the first to raise the spectre of the 'super prison' model. This strategy was based on a report, which was prepared for the Conservatives and which called for the construction of regional complexes across the country. These complexes would incorporate four or five penitentiaries within one perimeter, housing upwards of 2,000 inmates -- in short, the San Quentin State Prison model. No prison in Canada currently houses more than 550 inmates. The U.S. tough on crime agenda has increased their prison population to a point where it has incarcerated more people than any other country in the world. Few would claim that this has created a 'safer' environment.
What the government requires is the land base upon which to construct these facilities. San Quentin sits on 432 acres of land. Interestingly, the Frontenac farm in Kingston is comprised of 772 acres of class 2 and 3 soils -- prime agricultural land. In 2007, Correctional Services Canada was requested to develop a cost estimate for a new correctional facility that could incorporate the correctional activities of several existing facilities located in the Kingston area into one footprint. The plan for super prisons has been underway for some time.
But even the Conservatives knew they needed some kind of justification for closing the farms to acquire the land to build super prisons, so they decided to claim that the work on the prison farms -- agricultural work -- was worthless.
How could agricultural work be worthless, farmers wondered? I guess it was as logical as the Reformers' notion that a university education was worthless. Stockwell Day only got as far as high school, and he was doing alright, even if he was in fact, doing everything wrong.
And from the caucus room could be heard the familiar song:
All Hail Harper, we'll rub their noses, In our bad decisions all, Bit by bit, we'll destroy this country, Total destruction, before we fall.
Riches will be ours for taking, Farmers we don't like a bit, Lock them up and fill those prisons, Cause really we don't give a sh..... darn?
CHAPTER FOUR
Stormy was feeling very optimistic. All around him were people engaged in activity. Sawing and painting "Save the Prison Farms" wooden cut-outs. Organizing rallies in Ottawa. Some were on the phone, others at their computers.
This kind of solidarity could move mountains. They would save his friends at the prison farms, human and animal alike. He just knew it. And he was going to help.
The humans spoke of all people from all political stripes joining in, except of course the Reformers. Hugh Segal their senator from Kingston got a case of "hoof in mouth" disease, and their candidate Brian Abrams sent one email suggesting that he supported the cause. Then Harper stuck a gag in his mouth, strapped a plough to his butt and demanded that he mulch the fields to remove any evidence that it was once fertile farmland.
But they had musicians, teachers, nuns, professors, farmers, seniors, youth ... everyone with a stake in the cause. In fact who didn't have a stake? This was about food and it was about justice and it was about doing what was right.
Even Margaret Atwood, a national treasure was lending her support. How could they lose?
But poor Stormy didn't understand evil. He had spent his life with people who cared about all those things. Maybe if he spent a day with the Reformers, he might understand about inhumanity.
Bright once shone the fields of Frontenac, A star in our community, Now foul odour rides the breezes As we lose our democracy.
CHAPTER FIVE
The cattle at Frontenac were up earlier then usual. The sky was cloudy and threatening rain. But that's not what had them feeling uneasy. There was something else in the air that day. They could feel it.
A rumbling outside the gates as trucks idled. Loud voices of people not letting them pass. And the inhumane sound of humans being thrown to the pavement by men and women in uniform.
But they were not the uniforms they saw everyday. These were different. These were the uniforms of a death squad. A death squad that would put the final bullet into the heart of Canada.
"I have some bad news guys. Stormy's been arrested," said the agitated heifer.
"Stop that. More rumours. You're frightening us."
"No, I'm not lying. I saw him being led to the Big House. And Jeff was with him. This is not good."
And they all sang now. A melancholy melody.
For all the days that we have laboured, Building up this beautiful farm; And for all the men who've found salvation, This will do irreparable harm.
CHAPTER SIX
And indeed the worst had happened. The cattle were led away in chains and sold off, while their supporters were led away in handcuffs.
But the battle is not over, and there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon. Or should I say a glimmering Hope.
Those involved in this operation for a year and a half were able to purchase some of the cattle back. Only six of three hundred, but it's a start.
And one little calf, aptly named Hope will now symbolize that little light glowing in the darkness.
Meela Melnik-Proud now has Hope. The resident of Kingsmere subdivision travelled to the cattle auction in Waterloo on Tuesday, eager to buy one of the milking cows that had been removed from Frontenac Institution. Instead, she found herself the owner of a four-month-old calf, which she aptly named Hope.
"She's just perfect," said Mel-nick-Proud, who took part in the recent protests against closing local prison farms. "The whole point is that she represents hope, maybe rebirth, that we'll come back to the table with dialogue and diplomacy, not dozens of armed police officers."
Melnik-Proud said her university-aged daughters will help take care of the newest member of the family. "I'm not a farmer or anything," she said. "I just thought -- I was watching the cows being removed, and talking to farmers and the anguish of the whole ordeal -- I thought, 'Well, I'm going to go buy a cow.' "
And where there is a beautiful little calf and a determined little donkey, there will always be HOPE!
So to all former beasts of Frontenac, And all of this great land and clime, Harper's days are clearly numbered Then we'll have a golden future time.
A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada
Author Margaret Atwood wrote an oped piece for the Globe and Mail which is both a plea for our salvation and a warning of what the future holds.
Stephen Harper's vision for Canada has been acted out in full force and what started incrementally is finishing as a radical revolution. And with the possibility of being ousted in the fall, this could well be the summer of mass destruction.
People are still poring through the fallout from that Toronto protest. Who did what, when, to whom and why? Why – knowing of the dangers of holding the G20 in a fenced-off, emptied-out downtown Toronto – did Prime Minister Stephen Harper not respond to Toronto’s pleas and change the venue? Why were legitimate NGOs blocked from access to the press, within the security-protected playpen? What accounts for the Ontario government’s confused instructions about security laws? Why the beat-up journalists? Why the nonchalance about the Black Bloc rampage? Why the wholesale roundups of bystanders?
And why the factory-chicken detention facilities for those corralled – scant food and water, no calls to lawyers and, if witnesses are any indication, nasty language and harassment? Is this “normal” – give a group unlimited, unsupervised power over another group, and this is what happens? If so, who authorized that power? Was the treatment of those arrested some sort of dry run – a testing of the waters to see how far those in authority can move toward Tinpot Dictatorship North, without a vote-losing backlash? Was the Black Blocker mayhem allowed so there would be a justification for the undue force later? And why is not a public inquiry in order?
Atwood goes on to discuss our horrible new crime bills at a time when Canada's crime rate is the lowest it's ever been. Even Conrad Black, the man that Margaret Thatcher once stated made her look like a Liberal, has denounced Harper's agenda: “It is painful for me,” he said, “to write that with this garrote of a blueprint, the government I generally support is flirting with moral and political catastrophe.”
With Harper's plans to build super prisons, which will be private "for profit" and American owned, there will be a need for "customers" and as Atwood points out: "But once prisons are seen as an industry, prisoners become the raw material and must be constantly supplied. The methods for creating criminals are well known; they include poverty, lack of employment and education, dehumanized prisons where novice criminals may learn from experts, and the criminalization of petty offences."
What is under attack by this government is not only Canada's image but as Atwood points out, the image we have of ourselves. The scenes of riot police beating peaceful protesters while Rome burned was like something out of a movie. Almost surreal, and completely un-Canadian.
Stephen Harper once claimed: "Westerners, but especially Albertans, founded the Reform/Alliance to get "in" to Canada. The rest of the country has responded by telling us in no uncertain terms that we do not share their 'Canadian values.' Fine. Let us build a society on Alberta values."
What "Alberta values" is he talking about? I know many Albertans who would be just as shocked over the events during the G20 and who would not support an enormous expenditure for private prisons that will strip the incarcerated of all human dignity, and offer no hope of ever being returned to society to build a new life.
With Canada's low crime rate, there was a need to create more crime by creating more "crimes" and extending the penalties. The cost for these new measures is enormous, and not just in the billions of dollars it will cost taxpayers, but also in human costs. And the only winners will be the criminals running the "business" and profiting from human suffering.
Yes Margaret, the sign above the door to prisons from hell, should read: “Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here”, but I think that sign should also be posted at all of our border crossings.
An obituary notice appeared in the paper asking mourners in lieu of flowers, to instead vote for the Liberals. Some thought it was a hoax, but indeed it was not.
