Canadians Protest Against PM Stephen Harper
January 24th, 2010 § 1 Comment
On January 23rd tens of thousands of Canadians gathered all across the country to protest Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s December 30th decision to prorogue parliament, a move widely interpreted as an attempt to avoid scrutiny over a number of issues, including allegations of a Conservative party cover-up of Afghan detainee abuse. Having also prorogued parliament last winter to avoid a confidence vote that he seemed bound to lose, Harper and his recently reshuffled cabinet have been angering many Canadians since they took office in 2006.
Among Harper’s recent accomplishments is his denial of Canada’s colonial history, reacting to the importance of environmental issues with contempt, putting increasing limitations on free speech in the name of ‘security’ (see the case of George Galloway and Amy Goodman), publicly announcing that Canadians don’t care about Afghan detainee abuse, and cutting off aid to several charities in response to pro-Israel lobbying (see here and here). Of course, proroguing parliament is within Canadian constitutional bounds and technically results in a tax-payer funded extended vacation for parliamentarians, but while past prime ministers have traditionally prorogued after the majority of legislative work was completed, Harper has done it in the middle of the working season.
At this point many Canadians will agree that Harper’s successful attempts to shut down parliament to avoid criticism is establishing a dangerous precedent which amounts to making parliament accountable to him, rather than the other way around. That being said, Harper likely continues to assume that following an appropriate amount of ‘downtime,’ Canadians will simply forget about their woes with his governance, and he will be able proceed accordingly with less challenges. In the best case scenario, events would occur during the prorogation period that would distract Canadian citizens from the reality of the increasingly distressing state of their country. In this sense Harper has been lucky. The earthquake that struck Haiti has enabled him to play the savior card by sending aid to the devastated country while completely ignoring Canada’s shameful role in bringing Haiti to the disparate state it was in prior to the quake. And yesterday news broke about an alleged Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie breakup, an event that will no doubt cosume the attention of many and grace front page headlines for days to come. But the growing presence of thousands of Canadians online and on the streets protesting against the Harper government is not something that can be ignored indefinitely, especially since Canadian mainstream news press has been banking on the growing public outrage, and recent polls indicate a drop in approval ratings.
Finally, I came across this interesting piece on Harper some days ago. Admittedly, it was the picture of Harper with a smug expression on his face (a stark contrast to promotional images like these and this) that caught my attention at first. As Gerald Caplan suggests, beneath Harper’s seemingly dull interior is a somewhat intelligent man who is strategically manipulating an entire country into giving him what he wants. Begins Caplan:
Although he wasn’t trying to hide his extremist views in those days, he came across on TV as rather bland, not unduly radical or even ideological. Off-camera I recall us chatting amiably enough, if not with any particular substance or purpose. There was nothing about him to make you think he was hell-bent for the top of the greasy pole. In short, as a panelist, a TV personality, a political spokesperson, a leading right-wing conservative figure, and even as a guy, he was simply dull. Bland. Entirely unmemorable.
Baby, look at him now.
[...] Canadians Protest Against PM Stephen Harper. By Jasmin Ramsey 2010 January 26 by kanan48 Via: PULSE. [...]