With all of our concerns over Stephen Harper's implementation of his plans to create deeper ties with the United States, who would certainly appear to be getting the better end of any deals; not everyone south of the border is impressed.
A small group of U.S. lawmakers unveiled legislation on Thursday to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement in the latest sign of congressional disillusionment with free-trade deals.
The bill spearheaded by Rep. Gene Taylor, Mississippi Democrat, would require President Barack Obama to give Mexico and Canada six months notice that the United States will no longer be part of the 16-year-old trade pact.
So the NAFTA leak from Harper's office that hurt Obama's campaign, and our government's actions for privatization, making all of our services open to NAFTA bids; could be for not.
We may instead be getting a six month notice from the U.S.
I certainly hope so. NAFTA has been horrible for Canada. And it would appear from the Reuter's article, that it hasn't been a walk in the park for the Americans either.
"At a time when 10 to 12 percent of the American people are unemployed, I think Congress has an obligation to put people back to work," Taylor said.
He argued NAFTA has cost the United States millions of manufacturing jobs and hurt national security by encouraging companies to move production to Mexico. The high unemployment rate makes it the "perfect" time to push for repeal even though past efforts have failed, he said.
"You'll see the American people rally behind this, in my humble opinion," said Rep. Walter Jones, a North Carolina Republican who is one of about 28 co-sponsors of the bill.
King Stephen's head will pop off if his precious NAFTA is abolished. And me? I'll be dancing in the street.
I may not have to work to get my Canada back after all. Maybe the Americans will just give it back. Do you think we could make one more deal though? Stephen Harper for future considerations?
The above video is the trailer for a documentary series 'The Nation's Deathbed'. There has been a growing movement to try and halt the deep integration treaties that Stephen Harper has entered into on our behalf, but since Mrs. Peacock's kindergarten class aren't covering this, we all believe that everything is rosy.
This is Canada. Nothing like this would ever happen here. Well guess again. Our civil liberties are eroding and even taken at it's basest, let's look at two important facts.
The Prime Minister's office is now controlling ALL of their press. They are writing the copy and taking the photographs, and our press gallery is now obsolete. And the Reform Conservatives voted 98% in favour of scrapping the Human Rights Commission at their last convention. They just need that majority that the press are determined to hand them.
So welcome to the new Canada. This is Harper land now. Check your civil liberties at the door ... cuz we ain't into none o' that ther lib luvin, tree huggin' nonsinse he'er now. We be jus' law 'biden folk. Pravda Ca-Na-Da tills us oll we need'er no.
One of the principal thrusts of corporate globalization and its neo-liberal ideology is the development of the national security state. In the minds of the gurus of this global system, the only proper roles for government are security – policing, the armed forces, intelligence gathering, prisons – the banking system and the general facilitation of the actions of private capital. Ideally, the rest would be handled by the private sector. As we have seen in Iraq even the security role can be increasingly contracted out to the private sector ....
Canadian author, publisher and political activist, Mel Hurtig, has written a book The Truth About Canada, in which he outlines how the neo-conservative movement has pushed us to the right, and we don't even know it. The rest of the world knows it and they are just shaking their heads in disbelief. How did we let this happen?
"We are no longer the country we think we are, and no longer the people we think we are."
There are a series of lectures available on YouTube, entitled 'Who Killed Canada', which chronicle this movement, from it's beginning to the crisis stage under Stephen Harper.
The video above is part one, and gives an introduction to the infrastructure of the extreme right-wing movement, beginning with the hi-jacking of our media, to the many so-called think-tanks, that provide the 'facts' to that hi-jacked media.
Tasha Kheiriddin, co-author of Canada’s Right: Blueprint for a Conservative Revolution, discusses at length this infrastructure. Kheiriddin was a member of Jason Kenney's Canadian Taxpayers Foundation, and writes for the Fraser Institute and several right-wing newspapers; including the National Post.
Media Ownership and the Radical Right in Canada
Controlling the Spin
Mr. Hurtig begins by discussing the Canadian media and how we now have the greatest concentration of media in the western world. In fact, he states that this would simply not be allowed in any other western democracy.
And since these same media outlets control newspaper, television and radio news; we are essentially only being given one voice. There are few or no alternative views. As stated in the video, a healthy democracy should foster a healthy and independent news media.
One of my favourite journalists, Lawrence Martin spoke of this. The video quotes him as saying "... the press versus the people - that runs right to the heart of the debate over the future of our country and to the heart of politics."
In an article for the Winnipeg Free Press by Frances Russell, under the heading 'Right-Wing Media covering up political scandal', he also discusses Mr. Martin:
"Lawrence Martin has written several articles about the Canadian media's rightward migration. In a January 2003 column headlined It's not Canadians who've gone to the right, just their media, he quoted an unnamed European diplomat saying "You have a bit of a problem here. Your media are not representative of your people, your values." Too many political commentators are right of centre while the public is in the middle, the diplomat continued. There is a disconnect."
"Martin believes the disconnect began when Conrad Black converted the Financial Post into the National Post, hired a stable of conservative commentators like Mark Steyn, David Frum and George Jonas, bought the centrist Southam chain and turned the entire package into a vehicle to unite Canada's right and retool the country's values to U.S.-style conservatism."
"CanWest's 'Global Sunday' bills itself as "Canada's number one current affairs talk show." But a lot of Canadians won't find their views reflected in the talk.
"Take the show that aired on February 20, featuring a panel discussion on equalization.
"The purpose of equalization is to ensure provincial governments have sufficient revenues to provide "reasonably comparable levels of public services at reasonably comparable levels of taxation."
"The left-wing perspective on equalization is that it helps fund programs that define who we are as Canadians, such as education, health care and social services. Canadians in every province should have roughly equal access to these programs, the left says.
"This perspective was not raised by the panel. Instead, all three panellists offered right-wing perspectives.
"The program's rightward tilt is not accidental. Indeed, Global Sunday's wider purpose may be to shift political discourse to the right. The model for this mission can be found on the Fox News channel and, in particular, the falsely balanced Hannity and Colmes debate show.
"This show pits the aggressive conservative Sean Hannity against the mildly liberal, often conciliatory Alan Colmes in a format "where conservatives outnumber, out-talk and out-interrupt their liberal opponents," as Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting explains the strategy.
"Global Sunday follows the same formula, tilting sharply to the right. Progressive and left-wing perspectives on public policy issues are blanked out – they don't seem to exist in Global Sunday's world. (Conservative MP Peter Kent once worked for Global (I believe he is still on their board) and his father Parker Kent, was a long-time employee of the Southam Newspaper Group (Conrad Black), and associate editor of the Calgary Herald (another Conservative rag)) Host Danielle Smith has a long history of advocating for the libertarian right.
"She started her career as an intern at the Fraser Institute, then launched the Canadian Property Rights Research Institute. This short-lived organization was sponsored largely by Alberta ranchers and its goal was to promote private property rights, opposing endangered species legislation and bans on smoking in indoor publicly accessible places.Smith was a natural for this job, having written a turgid essay for the Fraser Institute titled "The Environment: More Markets, Less Government."
(Danielle Smith is now the leader of the Wildrose provincial party in Alberta, and has the backing of the same 'Calgary School' that brought Stephen Harper to power. Is this another Death by Decentralization move?)
The Neanderthal Right-Wing Think Tanks
In the next segment of the video, Mr. Hurtig discusses the so-called think tanks that now provide most of the dubious 'facts' to the media. But as Donald Gutstein , explains in his book called; Not a Conspiracy Theory: How Business Propaganda Hijacks Democracy; these so-called think-tanks are nothing more than PR firms. He suggests that we follow the money.
The Fraser Institute's largest donors come from the oil and gas sector. C.D. Howe is mostly financed by Bay Street and the Council for Chief Executives is pretty much self explanatory. (report prepared for the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, entitled: From Correct to Inspired: A Blueprint for Canada U.S. Engagement calls for annexation of Canada, with regard to the economy, energy resources and the military; and recommends "an integrated, whole of government approach that recognizes shared interests and the reality of deep integration.")
These groups send a press release to the media, that usually ends up on the front page the next day. And of course their priorities are always an end or reduction to social programs like health care, education and the environment; while promoting increased spending for the military and law and order; two areas where they can cash in, rather than spend out.
And of course, while some media reports will offer an alternative viewpoint, by providing sources from more democratic institutes; they will usually precede their name with 'left-leaning', while never using 'right-leaning' with the groups that in Hurtig's view "are so right-wing they are falling off the edge of the globe."
A Harper Majority and Death by Decentralization
In the final brief segment of this video, the lecturer discusses what a Harper majority would like. His statement are not hyperbole, but based on the many articles and interviews with Stephen Harper, before he decided it was prudent to stop revealing his agenda.
In a piece authored with Tom Flanagan, he discusses the fact that the federal government should not handle social programs. All social programs should be privatized, including health care and education; while the federal government should be responsible only for defense and foreign policy.
He has also stated that "Whether Canada ends up with one national government or two governments or 10 governments, the Canadian people will require less government no matter what the constitutional status or arrangement of any future country may be."'. Both of his groups; the National Citizens Coalition and the Northern Foundation, used the motto 'More Freedom Through Less Government'.
There was no secret agenda, at least in the fact that it was not really that secret. He wants to dismantle this country and divide the spoils. However, will a dissected country be so willing to go to war for his 'super power wannabe' nation, if they no longer feel they belong? Maybe he didn't think it through.
In June of this year I posted about a peaceful protest against the SSP, that turned violent when three police provocateurs tried to disrupt the group with acts of violence, in attempt to justify their forced removal. Those police officers later admitted that it was indeed them involved.
In the above video we hear citizens trying to stop the masked men, telling them that it was a peaceful protest, so they should stop.
Well now the Integrated Security Unit who will be handling the 2010 Olympics, will not rule out using similar tactics, and the Reform-Conservatives refuse to step in.
"Two years after Quebec police officers were caught posing as protestors during the Montebello anti-SPP rally, three officers have been found to have “failed to respect the authority of the law by inciting persons to violence,” according to a press release today from the Canadian Energy and Paperworkers union (CEP).
“The ruling by the Comité à la déontologie policière, released yesterday, also found that the officers were disrespectful or impolite, used obscene, blasphemous or abusive language, and refused to produce identification when asked,” says the CEP release.
“This is a victory for democracy and for the democratic right to peaceful protests, but I have the same question I had two years ago,” says Dave Coles, who most will remember from the Paul Manley video as the man who unmasked one of the agents provocateurs at Montebello and repeatedly called them out as police officers.
“Who ordered them to do it? We need an independent judicial inquiry into the whole cover-up. When people show up to protest because they are concerned about an issue – and they are attacked by those who are supposed to be defending them… there is something wrong with the system."
The RCMP-led security force for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games won't rule out the use of agents provocateurs to incite protesters to commit illegal acts.
Speaking on behalf of the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit, Cpl. Jen Allan said the ISU is charged with ensuring people's safety. “We are not in a position to detail a specific operational plan as to how we are going to fulfill that obligation,” Allan explained to the Georgia Straight in a telephone interview.
She reiterated the ISU's assurance that all Olympic security operations will be carried out “in line with Canadian laws and Canadian values”.
Robert Holmes, president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, told the Straight he received a similar response when he raised the issue with the ISU.
Holmes recalled an incident that occurred in August 2007 at a North American leaders' summit in Montebello, Quebec. Video that was later posted on YouTube “caught” three undercover officers attempting to incite violence in order to delegitimize the peaceful protest, Holmes claimed. Quebec provincial police later admitted that three of its officers posed as protesters, but denied they were agents provocateurs.
Watch activists confront three individuals at an August 2007 protest in Montebello, Quebec. Provincial police later admitted that three of its officers did pose as protesters.
“I would hope that we don't get here the same kind of stuff that they experienced in Quebec with the G8 meeting and the Montebello conference between Bush and Harper,” Holmes said. Back then, NDP MPs Peter Julian (Burnaby–New Westminster) and Libby Davies (Vancouver East) called for a public inquiry into the agents provocateurs allegations. The Conservative government did not act on their request.
In a July 15 interview with the Straight, Julian described the Quebec provincial police's actions as “disgraceful”, but noted that the RCMP was not involved in the controversy.
“I think there is a greatly lessened chance of this happening [in Vancouver] because of what happened in Montebello,” Julian said. “I think the RCMP is well aware that it just completely blew up in the QPP's face.”
Holmes said that the BCCLA asked the ISU “point-blank” for a guarantee that agents provocateurs would not be used during the Games. He recalled the ISU responded that all plans were confidential. “That's not comforting,” he said.
With all of our concerns over Stephen Harper's implementation of his plans to create deeper ties with the United States, who would certainly appear to be getting the better end of any deals; not everyone south of the border is impressed.
