Junior cabinet minister Helena Guergis has issued an apology for her rude behaviour at the Charlottetown airport, where she allegedly threw a tantrum and screamed obscenities at staff who asked her to take her boots off for security screening.
Guergis "slammed her boots into the bin" provided by security personnel and then, according to the account, said to one of the airport staff: "Happy f---ing birthday to me. I guess I'm stuck on this hellhole.
This girl is such a ditz, but Harper holds onto her for some reason. Maybe by giving her the Status of Women portfolio, he can use it to claim that women should not be in politics, and Guergis is his proof of that.
Women should very much be in politics. Just not this woman.
She recently claimed that date rape was the result of the hyper sexuality of young girls, and voted in favour of scrapping the gun registry, then had the nerve to show up at the anniversary of the Montreal Massacre.
Her husband was charged with drunk driving and cocaine possession and at the airport people who witnessed her meltdown said she looked intoxicated.
Harper's God Squad can't be too pleased. And yet a spokesperson for the prime minister claims that she apologized so the matter is settled. I can assure you that the people of PEI will not think her apology means much.
IS THIS REALLY YOUR CANADA? IS HELENA GUERGIS REALLY THE BEST CHOICE FOR SIMCOE GREY?
The seal hunt in Canada is a very contentious issue, especially when it comes to the pups.
Protest groups are growing and since the industry only provides a portion of the annual income of fishermen, could there not be an alternative to something that is continuing to tarnish our reputation?
I'm all for protecting culture and livelihood, but where do you draw the line?
Early in 2009, Liberal Senator Mac Harb drew up a private member's bill which would have effectively ended the commercial seal hunt on Canada's east coast. The bill never made it to the Senate floor because it was not seconded.
Now remember, this was for the end of the 'commercial' seal hunt, and had nothing to do with the culture of the Inuit people.
So as fisheries minister, did Gail Shea sit down and maybe offer an alternative to the seal hunt, or find out what inspired the bill? Of course not.
Like a true Reformer she saw a way to turn it into a partisan issue, so on DFO letterhead, and with OUR money, she fired off an attack ad, not just on the Liberal senator, but on the entire party; claiming they had a 'hidden agenda'.
Then if that wasn't enough, Conservative Senator Fabian Manning (Preston Manning's cousin), who had just lost his bid for re-election, and was given a patronage appointment by King Stephen, did the same. If you're going to waste OUR money you might as well tag team.
The U.S. Humane Society says this of the seal hunt.
It is important to note that each killing method is demonstrably cruel. Because sealers shoot at seals from moving boats, the pups are often only wounded. The main sealskin processing plant in Canada deducts $2 from the price they pay for the skins for each bullet hole they find—therefore sealers are loath to shoot seals more than once. As a result, wounded seals are often left to suffer in agony—many slip beneath the surface of the water where they die slowly and are never recovered.
Europe moved today to halt the clubbing to death of hundreds of thousands of seals every year, when MEPs voted overwhelmingly to ban trading in seal products, hoping that the collapse of the market will drastically reduce the massacre. The decision to outlaw virtually all trade in seal products was directed mainly at Canada, where the yearly cull kills around 300,000 seals, a practice condemned by many as barbaric.
So by now you would assume that there would be some serious discussion on the viablity of the industry, right? Nope. Gail was determined to flog this stuff somewhere, so off to China she went.
Canada's fisheries minister courted Chinese officials in a bid to secure new markets for the country's controversial seal industry as other nations shut their doors on the maligned products. Gail Shea and several Canadian sealing companies paraded a collection of sealskin fashions, seal oils and medical uses for seal organs at the International Leather and Fur Show in Beijing on Tuesday.
If only she'd put half this much effort into protecting wild salmon, maybe Canada's fisheries would have a chance.
IS THIS REALLY YOUR CANADA? IS GAIL SHEA REALLY THE BEST OPTION FOR PEI-EGMONT?
Gail Shea won the riding of PEI-Egmont, by a mere 62 votes, and that was mainly because the Liberal incumbent, angry over the carbon tax, decided not to run.
As promised to the island, Stephen Harper gave this rookie MP a cabinet post, putting her in charge of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Since then she has made one mistake after another, and has proven that she is simply not up to the job.
But even before making a mess of the portfolio, and shaming our country, she did not get off to a good start.
Not long after the election I read in her local paper that some of her constituents were upset with what they referred to as 'travel-gate'. Apparently, she was flying friends to Ottawa (at our expense) to conduct business that should have been conducted at home.
She did recently take a tofu pie in the face, and was able to laugh it off, so I'm sure she's a decent person, but she's in the wrong party. It's that simple.
In her position as fisheries minister, she has consistently sided with corporations and has done nothing to protect the Canadian industry, instead just promoting a neoconservative agenda.
So her riding is one that I will be working on, in an attempt to get our country back; and hopefully get a DFO minister, who actually cares.
This page is a work in progress, so I will share strategies soon.
The question is not, "Can they reason?" nor, "Can they talk?" but rather, "Can they suffer?" Jeremy Bentham
In November 2008, there was a very distressing story emerging from the Baffin Islands where more than 500 Narwhal whales were trapped in the ice.
But instead of bringing in an ice breaker to free them, Gail Shea's office gave the order to simply shoot them.
The reaction was immediate, not only from humane societies and animal rights groups, but from ordinary citizens, who saw this as a vile and horrendous decision.
A quick fix to a problem from a fisheries minister who had no obvious fondness for anything to do with fish, our oceans or the humane treatment of any living thing.
So in true neoconservative, Reform Party tradition, the government went into damage control, making the whole sordid affair about attacking our Inuit community.
They even went so far as to suggest that what they did was the most humane solution. Though everyone, including the United States, had suggested that icebreakers should be brought in to free the frightened mammals, Shea's office stated that the noise of the icebreaker would "stress" the whales.
Apparently having hunters shoot at them was far less stressful. As Captain Paul Watson explains with disgust:
The slaughter of these Narwhals did not need to take place. The Humane Society offered to employ Inuit to keep the breathing holes open until a Canadian government icebreaker could arrive to break them out. The Canadian government refused to dispatch an icebreaker stating that the noise of the icebreaker would "stress" the whales.
There was nothing humane about the slaughter that followed as Inuit riflemen opened fire on the frightened whales. The "stress" of an icebreaker would have been minimal compared to the horrific trauma of having family members torn apart by bullets around them. There is no humane way to shoot a whale. For the DFO to describe this slaughter as "humane" is ludicrous ...
Gail Shea fired off a letter to Sea Shepherd, who employs Paul Watson (join his Facebook fan group. He is a true Canadian hero), accusing him of attacking the Inuit people, making sure to have Leona Aglukkaq sign it. What the health minister has to do with the slaughter of whales is anyone's guess, unless this was some kind of racial profiling.
The Inuit people are closely connected to their environment and have been for centuries, and will continue to practice their great culture. Inuit strongly believe animals should be respected and should never suffer as in this case. Mr. Watson's comments demonstrate a deep ignorance of Inuit society, and seek to demonize their culture and traditions. His extreme comments discredit the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which he represents. These comments are deeply offensive to Inuit, and to all Canadians.
Of course this had nothing to do with the Inuit, who were offered a chance to hunt above their usual quota, but it didn't stop the corporate media from getting involved. 'Inuit dismayed by protests over narwhal cull', they cried; but again Mr. Watson says it best:
I said nothing hateful about Inuit culture. My criticism was for the behavior of those individuals who slaughtered 560 Narwhals when it was possible to rescue them. I maintain that the slaughter was barbaric, cruel and unnecessary. I make no apologies for that. I could not care less what race or culture these men belonged to - it was their behaviour that I condemned and I maintain that it was a viciously cruel way to execute the orders of the government of Canada.
Our clients are whales and other marine wildlife. We represent their interests and not the interests of people of any culture, of any race, of any belief. We do not discriminate on our criticisms of human culture. The defense of life, diversity and the ecological health of this planet takes precedence over any culture. I am frankly sickened by the continued use of culture to justify everything from bullfights to fox hunts, to polar bear hunting to whaling to cutting down the rainforest. My empathy is for hellish horrific pain, suffering and loss borne by the Narwhals ...
There is something quite defining when comparing the media's account of the story to that of the grieving sea captain. They don't capitalize Narwhal.
IS THIS REALLY YOUR CANADA? IS GAIL SHEA REALLY THE BEST OPTION FOR PEI-EGMONT?
In many ways if you want to try to figure out Stephen Harper and why he does things; you only have to look at Mike Harris, the former premier of Ontario.
Harris had a rather radical style of governing that had not been seen in Ontario before, so the press and the pundits were often left scratching their heads.
But as author and political scientist Brooke Jeffrey claims; 'His theory was unique, but understandable if one considers his neoconservative perspective.' (Hard Right Turn, Harper-Collins, 1999)
This is the mistake that most of the media is making when covering Stephen Harper. He doesn't answer questions, so they try to answer them for him, but sadly they usually get it completely wrong.
A neoconservative has no interest in governing responsibly, balancing budgets or dealing with people. They have one goal and one goal only. To dismantle the government and pave the way for top-down commercialism.
So when you look at cabinet positions, and wonder why someone with little or no experience, education or interest in their portfolio, would be chosen to head it up; you have to look at it through the neocon's eye.
If you choose a cabinet minister who has worked in the industry and has knowledge of how it operates, that minister might start developing some empathy for what they dub 'special interest' groups.
For instance an agriculture minister might start to speak up on behalf of farmers, or a health minister might want to protect public health care. But that is not their job. They are not supposed to care about who is effected by government decisions, but only that the decisions of the leader and his inner circle get carried out.
In this way Gail Shea was a perfect choice to head up the Fisheries and Oceans. I don't know what her education is, since nothing is listed in her profile, but she definitely had no experience with this file. She was a rookie MP, something else neocons like, since they believe they will be ever so grateful, they'll never oppose the person who put so much faith in them. So when that leader and his inner circle, made up of mostly unelected lawyers, corporate insiders and communications experts, turned their backs on the B.C. Salmon Fisheries, in favour of Norwegian multinational salmon farms, what did Gail Shea do?
Se went to a trade show in Norway run by the multinationals she should be protecting Canadians from.
Of the eight to ten million wild sockeye salmon predicted by Oceans and Fisheries Canada to return to the Fraser River this year, only about 7% are returning, leading to the closure of all sockeye fishing on the river for the third year in a row.
“Maybe the salmon will return a year later,” What?
To suggest salmon might be a year late returning shows a lack of knowledge, said Donaldson. “That’s absolutely asinine,” he said. “It flies in the face of how the migration cycle works with sockeye.” The fish have always returned on a four-year-cycle and are not likely to suddenly change, he said. “Evolution just doesn’t quite work that way.”
You would think that if the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans didn't know that, they would at least try to learn something about it before making such a ridiculous comment.
But then, that's not her job.
IS THIS REALLY YOUR CANADA? IS GAIL SHEA REALLY THE BEST OPTION FOR PEI-EGMONT?
If the Reformers were hoping to hold on to Gail Shea's seat, or make further inroads into Prince Edward Island; Helena Guergis just put the screws into those plans.
